From the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance:
BDCP on Life Support; Prognosis Poor: Delay unlikely to enable BDCP to recover from congenital terminal illness:
“The controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that proposes to construct two 35-mile long tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to divert Sacramento River water to agricultural plantations in the deserts of southern California was placed on life support following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) scathing 43-page comment letter on the BDCP’s draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS). The Department of Water Resources announced that a revised EIR/EIS would be delayed until sometime in 2015. BDCP’s friends and family anxiously expressed hope that an infusion of additional millions of dollars and months of treatment would enable the project to recover.
However, the EPA comments coming on top of some 4,500 pages of searing reviews by municipalities, counties and water agencies that would be adversely impacted by the project, almost
2,000 pages of highly critical comments by environmental and fishing organizations, hundreds of pages of harsh analyses by government agencies and stinging comments from many thousands of California citizens reveal that BDCP is suffering from a congenital terminal illness. Additional delay is unlikely to improve BDCP’s prospects for survival.CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings observed, “BDCP was doomed from the beginning because
it was conceived on the fatal premise that you can restore an estuary hemorrhaging from a lack of
flow by depriving it of another 2.5 million acre-feet of flow.”Full statement here: CSPA PR BDCP Delay 29Aug14
From Congressman Jerry McNerney:
“Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-09) today issued the following statement after the announcement by the California Department of Water Resources that it will delay implementation of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) until at least early 2015:
“The delay in implementing the BDCP is good news, and I am encouraged that the state realizes the plan is deeply flawed,” said Rep. McNerney. “Delta families, farmers, and small businesses have had these concerns for years, and I am glad the state is finally paying attention. We need to work towards a water solution that is fair for the whole state and doesn’t endanger the California Delta. That plan that should include more storage, desalinization, conservation, and efficiency.”
From Restore the Delta:
EPA Rejects Flawed Project No Financing Plan, No Water, Won’t Restore Delta Tens of Thousands Comment “No Tunnels”
“Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, and salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) critical review of the Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS). The opponents said the Brown Administration’s delay and redrafting of the governor’s water tunnels plan is a response to the EPA’s criticism of its fatal flaws, does not meet federal standards, and lacks a financing plan.
“The EPA’s criticism of the BDCP shows that it is fatally flawed,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of RTD. “The letter by the EPA to National Marine Fisheries Service confirms our findings that the BDCP is a disaster for Delta water quality, communities and fisheries. If the BDCP simply does a rewrite, these issues will not disappear. Rearranging the chairs on the Titanic did not keep it from sinking. A rewrite will not fix the BDCP.”
Delaying the BDCP will not change the fundamental flaws underlying it: it doesn’t pencil out, there is no surplus water for export, and you can’t restore the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta estuary by draining water from it. The delay shows the power of public engagement. Thousands of pages of comments were turned in, everything from simple statements from citizens to complex analyses by experts.” … ”
Continue reading from Restore the Delta here: EPA Rejects Flawed Project No Financing Plan, No Water, Won’t Restore Delta Tens of Thousands Comment “No Tunnels”
