9-27-09

 
9-27-09               
Modesto Bee
Get high-speed rail on track
Federal funding presents chance to get it started...Editorial
http://www.modbee.com/editorials/v-print/story/870782.html
We've always liked the idea of a high-speed train whizzing through the valley, shuttling passengers between Southern California and San Francisco at speeds of up to 220 mph.
But we've always been concerned about the cost. That's why we recommended a "no" vote on Proposition 1A, which authorized the state to sell $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to build a high-speed passenger train system. California voters thought otherwise and, despite the then-deteriorating economy, approved the measure last November.
The Obama administration is on the same track, envisioning a nationwide network of high-speed passenger trains, much like the bullet trains in France, Spain, Japan and other countries. And as part of its stimulus program, the federal government is offering $8 billion in incentives to states to proceed with high-speed rail projects.
Thus, while we're still concerned about the construction and operating costs of high-speed rail, we fully support California's application for a sizable part of that $8 billion.
Last week, the California High Speed Rail Authority unanimously approved an application for $4.6 million for four segments of the 800-mile proposed route.
We're pleased that two of those segments are in the San Joaquin Valley, and we want to acknowledge the role of Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, in the entire project — and especially in watching out for the interests of the valley, in particular the Merced area.
If the valley segments get the money, it would be matched with state and local dollars to pay for right-of-way acquisition, grade separations, utility relocation, environmental mitigation, guideway structures and track.
Separate applications seek money for the initial planning for other segments, including from Merced to Sacramento through Modesto. Realistically, though, that section is years away.
The high-speed rail project is of such scope that it's challenging to get a grasp on all of the issues to be resolved. For instance:
The application shows that the 50-mile segment between Merced and Fresno would be new track alongside the existing Union Pacific line, although earlier the plan was to make it parallel to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks, on which Amtrak now operates.
Between Fresno and Bakersfield, though, the alignment isn't firm, in part because the Visalia-Tulare area is lobbying heavily for a station. But the more stations and stops there are, the less high-speed the trains will be, thus defeating the whole purpose of the service.
The federal government is requiring that each segment have "independent utility." That means the tracks must be useful on their own, for traditional rail service, even before they are electrified and the high-speed trains are rolling.
The biggest expense in the Merced- Fresno segment will be grade separations — that is, locating the tracks over or under existing roads. But even without high-speed rail, those kinds of improvements would benefit existing traffic, both vehicle and train.
There's still a difference of opinion over the choice of Pacheco Pass as the preferred route into the Bay Area, rather than across the Altamont.
The list of unresolved issues and unanswered questions along the entire length of the route goes on and on.
Those issues, and the whopping $40 billion, which would come from a mix of state-local, federal and private dollars, underscore the magnitude of the project.
High- speed rail service between Southern California and the Bay Area has been in the planning stages for years, but never had the funding necessary to move forward. Now, the combination of Proposition 1A and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies provide much-needed financial fuel for the project.
Finally, California has an opportunity to get this train moving down the track; it's an opportunity that must not be wasted.
Federal Funding Opportunities
California is applying for federal funding for four corridors within the proposed 800-mile system. The application requests:
• $2 billion for the Los Angeles to Anaheim segment
• $466 million for the Merced to Fresno segment
• $819 million for the Fresno to Bakersfield segment
• $1.28 billion for the San Francisco to San Jose segment
Each of these corridors must be operational as individual segments by Sept. 30, 2017. California will use state bond funds from the passage of Proposition 1A, the High-Speed Rail Act, to provide a dollar-for-dollar match of federal funds.
In addition, California is seeking money for preliminary engineering and environmental studies for six segments:
• Los Angeles to San Diego
• Los Angeles to Palmdale
• Palmdale to Bakersfield
• Merced to San Jose
• Sacramento to Merced
• the Altamont
Timeline for federal funding:
• Applications due: Friday
• Federal Railroad Administration decisions on applications expected: within three to four months
• Corridor program environmental approval deadline: Sept. 30, 2011
• Begin construction: no later than Sept. 30, 2012
• Project Completion: no later than Sept. 30, 2017
— Source: California High-Speed Rail Authority
Sacramento Bee
Ken Burns' 'The National Parks' documentary brings renewed attention to John Muir...CHUCK BARNEY, Contra Costa Times
http://www.sacbee.com/702/story/2212280.html
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Ken Burns tends to get effusive. Ask the acclaimed filmmaker about his new opus on America's national parks and watch what happens: His eyes widen, his hands dart about and lyrical words gush forth like a mountain stream after a robust winter runoff.
"I just feel it," he says, trying to explain the emotional attachment he has to his work. "I've got the preacher's desire to have everybody stand up and testify."
The same might be said for John Muir, the iconic naturalist Burns got to know so well during the making of "The National Parks: America's Best Idea." Muir, who lived in Martinez, Calif., from 1880 until his death in 1914, extolled the virtues of nature through his writings and activism. Had it not been for his crusading, Yosemite and other natural treasures might now be gated communities - or tacky theme parks.
In Muir, Burns essentially found a kindred spirit.
"You could see Ken gravitating toward Muir the whole time we were making the film. He was captivated," says Dayton Duncan, a producer and lead writer on the project. "What Ken sees in Muir is what he sees in Louis Armstrong and Jackie Robinson - individuals with great enthusiasm for life and the ability to channel that enthusiasm in a way that has a profound impact on other people."
Clocking in at 12 hours, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," features plenty of lush, jaw-dropping scenery from what Muir called "nature's sublime wonderlands." But the film isn't a simple travelogue crammed with pretty pictures. It's a rigorous examination of the evolution of the national park system from 1851 to 1980.
It's also the biographical saga of unsung heroes and famous figures from various backgrounds who committed themselves to preserving the nation's wilderness sanctuaries for all to enjoy. As presented in the film, the national parks concept is nothing less than a rousing expression of American democracy.
Fittingly, Muir gets star treatment. The highs and lows of his remarkable life are chronicled, including the time he and President Theodore Roosevelt camped together in Yosemite, and his most bitter disappointment - the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide water to San Francisco.
Muir's presence is even felt during the film's opening montage as actor Lee Stetson voices a piece of his writing:
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."
It's that brand of poetic prose that struck a chord with Burns, an East Coast native who never had been to Yosemite before production began and, admittedly, only had superficial knowledge of Muir.
"It's such a great thing to be hit over the head when you're working on a film," Burns says. "I just wasn't prepared for what a great writer he was. Mark Twain said the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. John Muir was lightning."
The film also brings to life the physically adventurous side of the Scottish-born rambler - the man who first arrived in the Yosemite Valley in 1868 and fell into what Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, calls a "berserk rapture."
Young Muir would think nothing of hiking 50 miles in two days, or of scaling steep slopes in shoes studded with nails, sleeping on glaciers and climbing a tall tree in a torrential storm just to feel what the tree felt.
"Because we've seen all these photos of an old and bearded Muir, we tend to think of him as having a pontiff-like presence, dispensing pearls of wisdom from his throne," says Stetson, who regularly portrays Muir in theatrical presentations at Yosemite and elsewhere. "But in his younger days, he was very hands-on in the way he embraced the wilderness. He did things that would have cost most of us a life or limb."
Though Muir continues to be an inspiration to nature-lovers everywhere and remains relevant in a world striving to go green, he is remote and indistinct for many. Even in the East Bay area in California, where his name is emblazoned on highways and hospitals, schools and hotels, he remains something of a mystery.
"It's amazing how many people live here, or nearby, who don't realize that Muir raised a family here, worked here and is buried here," says Thaddeus Shay, lead ranger at the 9-acre John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. "It's kind of sad."
Shay is hopeful that Burns' film will fuel interest in Muir and inspire more people to explore the 17-room Victorian mansion he shared with his wife, Louie Strentzel, and their two daughters. This is where Muir managed a highly profitable fruit ranch and wrote his books in what he called the "Scribble Den."
The site, Shay says, annually attracts 35,000, some of whom are startled by what they find.
"They're kind of surprised that he didn't live in a little one-room cabin up on a hill," he says.
It was in an editing room in Walpole, N.H., where Burns formed his bond with Muir. While poring over footage, he would, at times, shed tears upon hearing Muir rave about nature's transcendental powers, and would laugh at how Muir attempted to commune with the land in offbeat ways.
"This is a guy who took a wild ride on a snow avalanche," Burns says. "A guy who would drink the purple liquid of the Sequoia pine cone to become more tree-wise and 'Sequoiacal.' To even make up a word like that - you've got to love him."
The bond was sealed when the filmmaker, weary from a promotional appearance in San Francisco the previous night, drove into the Yosemite Valley to catch up with his camera crew. For the first time, he saw the majestic sights that Muir fought so tirelessly to protect.
"I've never in my life felt the way I felt at that moment," Burns says. "It was like losing your virginity, or becoming a parent for the first time. You think you know what it's like to make love, or be a parent, and then you come to realize you really had no idea."
SERIES PREMIERE
WHAT: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea"
WHEN: Sunday night (check local listings)
WHERE: PBS
ABOUT THE PARKS
A few facts about America's national parks:
-The first site to receive a national park designation was Yellowstone in 1872.
-There are 58 national parks, but the National Park Service also manages numerous historic sites, monuments and battlefields.-Overall, the NPS oversees 84 million acres.
-Yosemite National Park started as a state-run park.
-The largest unit in the system is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It encompasses 13,200,000 acres.
-Collectively, the NPS sites host 275 million visitors a year.
-The most visited park is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which annually attracts more than 9 million tourists.
Indybay
Delta Groups Protest BDCP Meeting, Call Water Meetings A Sham...Dan Bacher 9-26-09
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/26/18623392.php
Delta groups protested the Schwarzenegger administration's Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Water Meeting held in Stockton on September 22, calling the series of water meetings held throughout the California Delta a big "sham."
Delta Groups Protest BDCP Meeting, Call Water Meetings A Sham...Dan Bacher
Delta groups protested the Schwarzenegger administration's Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Water Meeting held in Stockton on September 22, calling the series of water meetings held throughout the California Delta a big "sham."
Representatives from Restore the Delta, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), and other Delta activist groups held a press conference and rally in Stockton to protest the BDCP workshop, part of a cynical process designed to build a peripheral canal and export more water out of the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The BCDP meeting was held across the street later in the day.
Fifty people, including several San Joaquin County Supervisors, attended the Restore the Delta rally, according to Bill Jennings, CSPA executive director.
The groups are battling against the construction of the peripheral canal, a budget-busting and environmentally destructive project that Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, said is the “preordained goal” of the BDCP meetings.
“We fought against legislation that would have allowed for construction of a peripheral canal, an outrageously costly project that provides no protection for the Delta and the people who work, play and reside in the area," Barrigan-Parrilla said. "We are continuing our fight as the BDCP holds sham meetings to disguise their plan to move forward with construction of the canal."
As the legislative session came to a close earlier in the month, a politically-stacked conference committee of 14 failed to pass a package of water bills, according to Barrigan-Parrilla. Representatives from Delta communities were not supportive of the bills which could have increased exposure to pollutants in the Delta waters, increased costs for water and water treatment, reduced farm production, and caused a greater loss of commercial fishing and a higher risk of flooding.
“The legislative process neglected to provide the people of Delta communities with a voice and would have allowed for the construction of a peripheral canal," explained Barrigan-Parrilla. "Today, we are up against the same unfair practices and are determined to stop the BDCP’s preordained goal of constructing a peripheral canal."
Over 200 people attended the BDCP workshop meeting in the afternoon. "The workshop was the predictable dog and pony show," observed Jennings. "But the good folks of Stockton weren't in the mood to buy into smoke and mirrors. Nothing substantive will come from these PR events other than the reiteration of opposition. Then again, the purpose of the workshops isn't to chart policy but rather to enable BDCP to subsequently claim they sought the involvement of people in the Delta."
"But, as least the organizers were honest about it: 'BDCP is a conveyance project,'" Jennings concluded.
Workshops were also held in Brentwood on September 19 and in West Sacramento on September 26. The final meeting will be held in Walnut Grove at the Ryde Hotel on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Registration will be from 4:30-5:00 p.m. The hotel address is 14340 Highway 160, Walnut Grove, CA 95690. For more information, go to: http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDCPPages/BDCPWorkshops.aspx There are reports circulating around the capitol that there may be a special legislative session on water held in Sacramento on October 13 through 15. Both Republicans such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and corporate Democrats including Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg are trying to ram a water bill package through the capitol that will result in the construction of the peripheral canal.
The push by Schwarzenegger and Steinberg to build a peripheral canal occurs as Central Valley and Delta fisheries are in their greatest-ever crisis. Central Valley Chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, threadfin shad and other fish populations have crashed to record low levels, due to massive water exports out of the California Delta and declining water quality. The collapse of Central Valley Chinook salmon alone has resulted in the loss of 23,000 jobs to the struggling California economy. The peripheral canal will only seal the doom of these imperiled fish populations.