by Dan Bacher 

The water content in California’s mountain snowpack is 115 percent of normal for the date statewide, contrasting with snow water content only 61 percent of normal last year at the same time, according to the snow survey conducted Friday by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). 

Electronic sensor readings show northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 129 percent of normal for this date, central Sierra at 101 percent, and southern Sierra at 119 percent. The sensor readings are posted at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ. 

You would think that the Schwarzenegger administration would be happy with this news, but DWR used the release of the data to perpetuate the myth that California is still in a “big drought” and to campaign for the construction of the peripheral canal and new dams. 

“Today’s snow survey offers us some cautious optimism as we continue to play catch-up with our statewide water supplies,” claimed DWR chief deputy director Sue Sims. “We are still looking at the real possibility of a fourth dry year. Even if California is blessed with a healthy snowpack, we must learn to always conserve this finite resource so that we have enough water for homes, farms, and businesses in 2010 and in the future.” 

Sims noted that Lake Oroville, the principal storage reservoir for the State Water Project (SWP) is at 33 percent of capacity, and 50 percent of average storage for this time of year. Lake Shasta, the principal storage reservoir for the federal Central Valley Project, is at 56 percent of capacity, and 82 percent of average for the date. 

Sims failed to note that the reason why the reservoirs were so low is because they were drained to provide subsidized water to corporate agribusiness, supply the Kern County Water Bank and fill Southern California reservoirs. 

“DWR’s early allocation estimate was that the agency would only be able to deliver 5 percent of requested SWP water this year, reflecting low storage levels, ongoing drought conditions, and environmental restrictions on water deliveries to protect fish species,” according to the DWR news release. “The agency will recalculate the allocation after current snow survey results and other conditions are evaluated.” 

DWR tried to blame the “lack of water” on protections for Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon, rather than the real reason – rampant mismanagement of California water by the state and federal governments. Agribusiness giants such as Stewart Resnick, owner of Paramount Farms and Fiji Water, have made millions of dollars in profits off the marketing of subsidized water in recent years under the current “management” scheme. 

“DWR estimates that fishery agency restrictions on Delta pumping adopted in the past year to protect Delta smelt, salmon, and other species could reduce annual deliveries of State Water Project water by 30 percent,” DWR stated. 

Yes, that’s right, the fish – not water marketing and water privatization by big corporations – are the “reason” why “poor farmers” in the Westlands Water District and Kern County could have their deliveries cut “by 30 percent,” according to DWR’s poor logic. 

And DWR has a “solution” – build the peripheral canal (”water conveyance”) and new dams! 

“Governor Schwarzenegger has championed a comprehensive water plan that he recently signed into law,” DWR stated. “The package would safeguard the state’s water supply through conservation, more surface and groundwater storage, new investments in the state’s aging water infrastructure, and improved water conveyance to protect the environment and provide a reliable water supply.” 

Of course, even if torrential storms of biblical proportions were causing massive flooding throughout California right now, Schwarzenegger and DWR staff would be campaigning for the peripheral canal, new dams and the passage of the $11.1 billion water bond as the “solution” to the problem! 

Salmon Water Now, a collaboration between fishermen and media professionals, has released a superb new video, “The Water Pirates,” describing how agribusiness maintains a dangerous stranglehold on water management policy in California. You can watch the Video at: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqVc8Hbmqk&fmt=18 or Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/8521134.

Photo of giant post-spawned Chinook salmon on Battle Creek in fall 2008 by Doug Killam, DFG Associate Fisheries Biologist.  While nearly 800,000 salmon returned to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries in 2002, the fall 2009 run could be as low as 60,000 fish.  State and federal government biologists are currently compiling the data on the 2009 fall salmon runs in preparation for determining the annual West Coast salmon seasons.

by Dan Bacher 

Salmon Water Now, a collaboration between fishermen and media professionals, has released a new video, “The Water Pirates,” describing how agribusiness maintains a dangerous stranglehold on water management policy in California, according to Larry Collins, commercial salmon fisherman. Anybody who is interested in seeing how Democratic and Republican Party politicians have both manipulated California water politics to benefit big agriculture’s corporate welfare recipients should watch this video, produced by Bruce Tokars, and urge their friends and co-workers to do so also. 

You can watch the Video at: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqVc8Hbmqk&fmt=18 or Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/8521134. 

“The video focuses on the controversial California water bond as well as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) continued efforts to benefit her friend, campaign contributor, and agribusiness billionaire Stuart Resnick by attempting to expand the practice of private interests selling subsidized public water for huge profits to non-farm users – all while undermining efforts to restore vital Sacramento River salmon runs,” said Collins, who skippered his commercial fishing boat up to Sacramento as part of a “Million Boat Float” in August 2009 to protest the Governor’s plan to build the peripheral canal. 

Collins said the video release comes at a time when two federal panels are looking at the science and policies at the heart of California’s fisheries crisis. On Monday, the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and Power, led by Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), held a field hearing on California’s water supply issues. The hearing was hosted by the Metropolitan Water District, the most politically-powerful urban user of water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 

Meanwhile, a National Academy of Science (NAS) panel in Davis, CA is today finishing up its five day meeting to review the current federal water management plans (biological opinions) in the Delta designed to protect Delta smelt, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales. 

“The Water Pirates” video highlights one of the central policy issues facing both federal panels and the state: the expanding practice of private individuals selling subsidized federal water for huge profits to non-farm users such as real estate developers. “Unfortunately, Sen. Feinstein and others appear eager to expand this harmful practice,” said Collins. 

“The NAS panel came about after Mr. Resnick asked Senator Feinstein to request the review and earmark $750,000 in taxpayer funds to make it happen,” according to Collins. “While the panel heard an earful from invited agribusiness representatives and southern California water agency officials in support of stripping protections for fish in order to increase water exports south of the Delta, the NAS inexplicably failed to invite a single representative from California’s quarter-billion dollar salmon fishing industry or from the Delta’s many farming communities.” 

Fishing communities along one thousand miles of U.S. coastline in California and Oregon have lost hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the last two years due to salmon closures caused in large part by abysmal water management in the Delta. The closure of the salmon season has caused the loss of 23,000 jobs in California, according to the American Sportfishing Association. These communities have a significant economic and cultural stake in the successful resolution of the current water debate. However, the NAS panel has thus far ignored them to instead focus on agribusiness interests. 

The panel also failed to invite coastal and Delta Representatives and other elected officials, leaders of California Indian Tribes and representatives of environmental justice communities impacted dramatically by massive water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California. Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, said the exclusion of tribal representation from the panel testimony is “a continuation of the past 150 plus years of denial that tribal people have a right to discuss the protection of this state’s resources.” 

“By not including a tribal perspective of the connectedness of all parts of the environment, plans will be made and years of hard work by all of us will be wasted while the delta and the rivers connected to it are destroyed,” Franco stated. “When will the government leaders wake up and see that we who have lived in these areas for centuries know what the past brought and the future holds? As Florence Jones, our spiritual leader, said, ‘We all just can’t be dumb and die.’” 

Salmon Water Now works to raise awareness of the plight of wild salmon, salmon fishermen, and coastal communities dependent upon healthy freshwater flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta. The group believes that “water management in the Delta is woefully inadequate to restore the strong salmon runs that once formed the backbone of the fishing industry in California and Oregon.” 

“Great sacrifices have already been made in the form of two consecutive closed salmon seasons, intense hatchery programs, large job losses in the fisheries sector, and raised seafood prices for consumers,” said Collins. “All of these sacrifices will be made in vain as long as water, our most precious resource, continues to be mismanaged for the exclusive benefit of California agribusiness. Now is the moment for California to adopt sustainable, equitable water management that will restore the Bay-Delta’s salmon runs, bring back jobs, save coastal and Delta communities, and foster a newfound value for precious freshwater flows.” 

While corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies are manipulating federal water policy, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg in early November ramrodded a water policy/water bond package through the Legislature that creates a clear path to the construction of a peripheral canal and new dams. Voters must overwhelming defeat the $11.1 water bond at the ballot box in November or we can expect to see Central Valley salmon and Delta fish to become extinct. 

The same Governor who is promoting the canal is also completely backing corporate agribusiness in its campaign to gut Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Central Valley salmon and Delta fish. To make matters even worse, Schwarzenegger is fast tracking a widely-contested Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that is infested with conflicts of interests, racism and corruption of the democratic process. 

The MLPA process has become a surrealistic parody of a law that was passed by the State Legislature in 1999 to protect the marine environment. Rather than protecting the ocean as it was intended to, the process under Schwarzenegger has been taken over by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests and is now funded by a private corporation, the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation. The apparent aim of of Schwarzenegger’s MLPA is to kick Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters off the water to clear the way for offshore oil drilling, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture. 

Vote no on the $11.1 billion water bond this November! 

For more information, please visit http://www.SalmonWaterNow.org, or call Larry Collins at 415-279-1894.

Photo of giant post-spawned Chinook salmon on Battle Creek in fall 2008 by Doug Killam, DFG Associate Fisheries Biologist. “I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career and this is the biggest I have ever seen,” said Killam. “When alive, it could have weighed more than the largest Chinook officially recorded in California, an 88-pound fish caught in the Sacramento River.”  

Photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lester Snow by Dan Bacher. 

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Schwarzenegger Names Snow Resources Secretary, McCamman DFG Director 

by Dan Bacher 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Lester Snow as Natural Resources Secretary on January 5 to replace Secretary Mike Chrisman, who announced his retirement from state service effective February 1, 2010 to work in a new position at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. 

The Governor also announced the appointment of John McCamman as the permanent director of the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and Mark Cowin as director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). 

Snow has distinguished himself by presiding over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other species as Director of the Department of Water Resources. During his tenure, corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies exported the record water exports out of the California Delta that precipitated the collapse. 

Record water export levels occurred in 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increased to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007 under the Davis and Schwarzenegger administrations, a rise of almost 30 percent. 

Schwarzenegger praised Snow for his role in developing the peripheral canal and dams water package that was rushed through a special legislative session by Schwarzenegger, Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass in early November 2009. 

Critics of the water policy/water bond package emphasize that it was developed in back door negotiating sessions between Legislative leaders, the Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense Fund and completely excluded the input of Delta Legislators, fishermen, California Indian Tribes, environmental justice communities and Delta residents. 

“Throughout the course of my Administration, Lester has used his high-level expertise in public resource management to protect California’s water supply,” Schwarzenegger said. “With his skills and knowledge, Lester served a key role in developing the historic comprehensive water package to reform and rebuild our state’s water infrastructure that will benefit future generations of Californians.” 

“I am extremely honored by the opportunity to continue serving my fellow Californians in this new position,” claimed Snow. “One of California’s greatest treasures is its natural resources and I am committed to working with the Governor to promote policies that protect our environment and preserve these invaluable assets for future generations to come.” 

Schwarzenegger also lauded Mike Chrisman, criticized by fishermen, environmentalists and Indian Tribes for his relentless efforts to build the peripheral canal and new dams and fast track the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, for his “dedicated years of service.” 

Mike Chrisman on December 24 denied a request by a Tri-County group for more time to draft marine reserves for the North Coast under the MLPA process. Chrisman rejected the request, sent by Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Commissioner Pat Higgins on behalf of the North Coast Local Interest MPA Workgroup, because he felt that an additional extension of the deadline was “unnecessary at this time.” 

“For the past seven years, Mike has worked tirelessly with me to safeguard our state’s precious natural resources and I am grateful to him for his service to the people of California,” said Schwarzenegger. “He is a dedicated public servant and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.” 

According to Kevin Yamamura in the Sacramento Bee, “he said he hadn’t anticipated leaving, but the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation job ‘was an opportunity that presented itself, and I couldn’t turn it down.’” 

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), said that nothing really has changed with the appointment of Snow as Natural Resources Secretary. 

“Snow has always been Resources Secretary,” said Jennings. “Schwarzenegger is just putting a title with his job that he’s actually held for a long time. Lester was the architect of the Delta’s collapse as the head of Cal-Fed. Nothing’s different with his appointment today – it’s basically a case of musical chairs.” 

In regard to Mike Chrisman’s retirement, Jennings quipped, “he was a loyal deputy for Lester Snow for many years.” 

Snow has served as director for the California Department of Water Resources since 2004. From 2004 to 2001, he was a principal in a “water resource consulting company.” Prior to that, Snow served as the Mid-Pacific regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 

From 1995 to 1999, he served as the executive director of the CALFED Bay-Delta program and, prior to that, spent seven years as the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Snow’s experience also includes six years with the Arizona Department of Water Resources including four years as the Tucson area director. 

Snow, 58, of Fair Oaks, earned a Master of Science degree in water resources administration from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelor of Science degree in earth sciences from Pennsylvania State University. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $175,000. Snow is a Democrat. 

In contrast to the appointment of Snow, the naming of John McCamman as DFG Director was welcomed by many in the fishing community, although they realize the difficult position he will have in enforcing environmental laws under the current Governor. McCamman played a key role in obtainin federal disaster relief for commercial salmon fishermen, fishing guides and recreational fishing businesses. 

“The salmon fishing community has had an excellent working relationship with McCamman,” said Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish and board member of the American Sportfishing Association. “He has been accessible, understanding of our needs and has helped solve a number of issues regarding the recovery of salmon.” 

Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle outdoor columnist, was also hopeful about MCamman’s appointment. “The new DFG director is John McCamman, who as deputy director, helped salmon-related skippers and other businesses get financial relief after water projects and ocean conditions devastated salmon and shut down fishing the past two years,” Stienstra said. 

“If McCamman devises a DFG budget where money from licenses from fishing, hunting and stamps is spent to increase fish and wildlife numbers, he’ll get plenty of support. I had dinner with McCamman and found him grounded, forthright, and the first director in 25 years who understands the political clout of outreach, not stonewalling. He also has a cabin in the woods, so he gets bonus points,” Stienstra stated. 

McCamman, 56, of Sacramento has since 2006, served as chief deputy director of DFG where he has been acting director since November 2009 and previously from 2007 to 2008. McCamman was senior vice president for Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations from 2003 to 2006 and chief of staff for U.S. Congressman George Radanovich from 1994 to 2003. 

Radinovich, McCamman’s former employer, has strongly supported legislative and administrative efforts to strip Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for two runs of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales. 

This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $142,965. McCamman is a Republican. 

Mark Cowin, 51, of Sacramento, is a DWR insider. He has served DWR for 29 years in various positions, most recently as deputy director of integrated water management for the Department of Water Resources since 2007, where he has overseen DWR’s flood management and dam safety programs, implemented integrated regional water management, coordinated DWR’s efforts related to climate change, and updated and implementing the California Water Plan. 

Prior to that, Cowin served DWR as chief of the division of planning and local assistance from 2002 to 2007 and assistant director for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program from 1998 to 2002. From 1981 to 1998, he served in a variety of other engineering positions at DWR. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Stanford University. 

This position requires senate confirmation and the compensation is $149,496. Cowin is a Democrat. 

John Lewallen, a member of the Ocean Access Network, was hopeful that Schwarzenegger’s new appointees will cancel the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that gives all power of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative to the Resources Legacy Foundation, a private corporation. 

“This will allow Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a chance to avoid leaving a legacy of fisheries fascism and the privatization of California resources management before he leaves office,” said Lewallen.

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Big Water Interests Hijack Obama Delta Science Team 

by Dan Bacher 

A scientific panel charged with reviewing federal plans to rebuild imperiled Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt populations has been “hijacked” by advocates of increased water pumping from the California Delta, fishing, tribal and environmental groups charge. 

Fishermen and environmental justice advocates are alarmed that no coastal or Delta Representatives, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, Indian Tribal leaders, Delta farmers and others who are directly impacted by the collapse of Central Valley salmon and other fish populations are being asked to testify before the panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). 

The team of scientists empanelled by the NAS begins a five-day meeting on Sunday, January 24 at the University of California, Davis. The federal fish restoration plans (biological opinion) under review are strongly opposed by western San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness, southern California land speculators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

“The NAS panel came about after one of the biggest corporate agricultural operators in the San Joaquin Valley, Stewart Resnick, asked Senator Diane Feinstein to request the review and earmark $750,000 in taxpayer funds to make it happen,” according to Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA). 

Feinstein and the Obama administration complied with Resnick’s request to reexamine the biological opinion after Resnick sent a letter to Feinstein on September 4. In the letter, Resnick claimed that the biological opinion to prevent endangered salmon and smelt from becoming extinct was “exacerbating the state’s severe drought” because it reduced the water available to irrigate farmland. He claimed that “sloppy science” by federal fishery agencies had led to “regulatory-induced water shortages.” “I really appreciate your involvement in this issue,” Resnick stated. 

Resnick, a major campaign contributor to leading California politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties, has made tens of millions of dollars from buying public water on the cheap and reselling it back to the state at substantial profit. He has contributed heavily to the campaigns of Senator Feinstein, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Governor Schwarzenegger. 

Resnick is a Beverly Hills billionaire, philanthropist and major political donor whose companies, including Paramount Farms, own more than 115,000 acres of land in Kern County, according to the Contra Costa Times. The “limousine liberal” also owns Westside Mutual Water Company in Bakersfield, which has taken control of the formerly public Kern Water Bank. Other companies that Resnick and his wife, Lynda, own include POM Wonderful, Teleflora, the nation’s largest floral wire service, FIJI Water, and Suterra, a pesticide company. 

Resnick’s agricultural companies, based in Kern County, Kings, Tulare, and Fresno Counties, comprise the largest farming operation of tree crops in the world, processing citrus fruit, pomegranates, almonds, and pistachios. 

Is the Obama Administration Repeating the Same Blunders As the Bush Regime? 

Grader said the strategy of getting the NAS to review salmon restoration plans was first used by then Vice President Dick Cheney when federal plans in 2001 restricted the water diverted by agribusiness in the upper Klamath River in an effort to protect threatened salmon from extinction during drought. 

“The Cheney strategy was to have a rushed NAS review identify enough areas of scientific uncertainty that the salmon restoration measures might be cast in doubt,” said Grader. “Six months later, the resulting change in the federal water plans on the Klamath helped spark the biggest adult salmon kill in Western U.S. history.” 

Over 68,000 salmon perished in the unprecedented environmental disaster, spurred by warm, low water conditions on the Klamath at the height of the fall salmon spawning run. 

“The good news is the science is solid behind this salmon rebuilding plan,” Grader stated. “The truth supports salmon fishermen who have been warning that too much water is being taken from the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary and its salmon. Those who covet the water needed to keep our salmon and the Delta alive are piling on to sway the NAS panel against salmon conservation.” 

“The federal National Marine Fisheries Service did a good job developing the salmon restoration plan. The NAS panel will also hear at length from the federal fish scientists who put this plan together, which is good,” added Grader. 

The Delta is the largest and most important estuary on the West Coast of the Americas and provides habitat and a migratory pathway between Central Valley streams and the Golden Gate for the West Coast’s second largest salmon run. The chinook (king) salmon of the Central Valley that depend on the Delta are the “backbone” of ocean salmon fisheries off California and Oregon, according to Grader. 

However, the NAS panel will also hear from U.S. Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno, CA and a representative of U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced, CA, who are the Democratic Party “water boys” for corporate agribusiness. 

“Both Congressmen are well-known proponents of maximizing water diversions from the Delta,” emphasized Grader. “Both are strong advocates for corporate San Joaquin Valley agriculture operations and their quest for ever-more northern California water from the Delta. Western San Joaquin growers and their Congressional representatives have overlooked or belittled clear evidence that Delta water withdrawals have exceeded the ecological carrying capacity of the Delta.” 

Grader said twice before Western San Joaquin interests and developers have pressured sitting California governors to quash scientific information and findings by the State Water Board – in 1988 and again in 1993 – because the science indicated water exports from the Delta would have to be reduced in order to save the Delta, its fish, and the economies that rely on the health of the estuary. 

The water exporters have further refused to acknowledge the economic damage done to Oregon and California’s multi-billion dollar sport and commercial salmon fishery caused by the excessive water withdrawals from the Delta. 

“Why weren’t our congressional representatives that represent the coastal communities invited to address this group? We’ve been reeling from two consecutive years of no salmon fishing, and our voices deserve to be heard,” said Larry Collins, a San Francisco-based commercial salmon fishermen. 

While commercial salmon fishermen aren’t even represented on the witness list, the NAS, in a bizarre move, has invited a representative of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, which studies skipjack and yellowfin tuna populations, to testify before the pane. These deep sea fish breed in Mexico and in warm years are sometimes found as far north as Point Conception in Santa Barbara. 

“It is ridiculous to suggest that the West Coast’s largest salmon run can be replaced by increased fishing of skipjack tuna in Southern California,” quipped Grader. “This leads me to question whether the Department of the Interior is serious about restoring the West Coast salmon fishery and the thousands of lost jobs in coastal communities in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington.” 

Delta Residents, Fishermen and Tribes Are Insulted by Exclusion from Panel Testimony 

The NAS will also hear from a representative of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that supports increased transfer of water from the Delta, where it’s needed to keep Delta farms and fish thriving, to new residential developments in southern California. The NAS panel will also hear from water transfer advocate B.J. Miller, an independent consultant who has made a career representing many of the largest water agencies in California. 

Miller, who is listed on the panel as a “consultant,” is expected to testify that he has found no correlation between Delta smelt populations and Delta pumping, according to the fishing and environmental groups. Miller has no University affiliations and his research has never been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. He has been listed as a “Consulting Engineer” for agricultural groups, including the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, a major beneficiary of Delta pumping. 

“The panel has also unexplainably invited testimony from Scott Hamilton who is with a group called Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, which is anything but,” said Grader. “This group is housed in Stewart Resnick’s Paramount Farms in Kern County.” 

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta is one of four “Astroturf” groups – front organizations set up by big business and water agencies to portray themselves as “grassroots” groups – lobbying for increased pumping of northern California and Delta water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California. 

“This is an insult to Delta residents who will be most affected by the decisions of this panel,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Restore the Delta. “Delta farmers and Delta cities rely on water from the Delta, which has suffered from water quality problems from overpumping in previous years. The collapse of Delta fish populations has also severely impacted the Delta’s and California Coastal commercial, sportfishing and tourism industries, to say nothing of the natural environment. Neither Restore the Delta staff, nor any of its 4500 members were invited to testify before the panel.” 

Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, said the exclusion of tribal representation from the panel testimony is “a continuation of the past 150 plus years of denial that tribal people have a right to discuss the protection of this states resources.” 

“By not including a tribal perspective of the connectedness of all parts of the environment, plans will be made and years of hard work by all of us will be wasted while the delta and the rivers connected to it are destroyed,” Franco stated. “When will the government leaders wake up and see that we who have lived in these areas for centuries know what the past brought and the future holds? As Florence Jones, our spiritual leader, said, ‘We all just can’t be dumb and die.’” 

Franco was hopeful that someone from the tribal communities impacted will be able to speak at these “government sanctioned circuses.” 

Representatives of fishing, tribal and environmental groups wonder whether these industry groups even belong as “expert witnesses” at a hearing for an “independent scientific review” of the biological opinion determining freshwater flows needed to restore salmon, smelt, and other species of fish. 

“We had expected better from the current administration,” said Byron Leydecker of Friends of the Trinity River. ” Seeing that the National Academy of Science review will be an extended process, we hope that representatives from the salmon industry, Delta communities and the independent, University-affiliated biologists who are studying the decline of Delta fish populations will be given an equal opportunity to testify in the near future.” 

A Political Farce Disguised as “Science” 

I have called and emailed representatives from the National Academy of Sciences. However, I haven’t yet received any response to my question as to why big agribusiness and water district officials have been invited to testify before the science panel, but no coastal or Delta Representatives, fishermen, Delta farmers, California Indian tribal members or environmental justice communities have been asked to speak before the panel. 

I am appalled that Feinstein, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama administration have agreed to conduct a political farce under the guise of “science.” The irony is that the biological opinion that is being “reviewed” by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a plan that a federal judge ordered rewritten under the Bush administration. Now the Obama administration is doing a review of court-ordered biological opinion that was started under the Bush administration! 

Doesn’t that put the Obama administration to the environmental right of the Bush administration, since it was the re-written biological opinion begun under the Bush administration that “limousine liberal” Stewart Resnick and southern California water interests are challenging because it is “too protective” of salmon, smelt and other fish? 

The same agribusiness and southern California interests that are pushing for the gutting of Endangered Species Act protections for salmon and smelt are campaigning for the construction of a peripheral canal and new dams. These big water interests collaborated with Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to ram a water policy/water bond package through the Legislature in November 2009 that creates a clear path to the construction of a peripheral canal and Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs. 

If the canal is built, fish advocates believe that it will result in pushing Sacramento River winter run and spring run chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales over the edge of extinction. For more information, go to http://www.calsport.org or http://www.restorethedelta.org.