danbacher Gulf Coast Community to BP: Never Again!
by Dan Bacher
During a break in daylong thunderstorms, Gulf Coast community members, including fishermen and families, directly impacted by the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill converged on the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana on May 16 to send the human message “NEVER AGAIN!” to British Petroleum and the federal government and other officials. They called for urgent action to address the economic and environmental devastation from the spill.
The event, sponsored by the Commercial Fisherman of America and Global Green USA, served as a call to action for a full clean up of the spill, restitution for lost jobs and income, and accelerated efforts towards green energy, according to a news release from the Commercial Fishermen of America.
“The oil spill has put fishing livelihoods and a whole way of life that spans generations in severe jeopardy as hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil pour out of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig,” according to Margaret Curole, Board Member of Commercial Fishermen of America. “According to some analysts, the economic cost of the spill could be as high as $14 billion. The coastal wetlands and marine waters now being devastated provide critical habitat for some our nation’s most productive fisheries.”
Costs to the Louisiana fishing industry could total $2.5 billion, while the Florida tourism industry could be expected to lose $3 billion, according to Curole. The environmental impact of spill could take years to repair, as the Gulf coastline of wetlands could hold on to the oil’s toxins for years, destroying valuable rearing habitat for fish and other species.
Other coastlines may not be spared from the oil’s impacts either, as officials now fear the oil will get into the Loop Current and be swept around the Florida peninsula and into the Gulf Stream, which would send the oil along the east coast currents.
“This was the first time these fishermen were ever involved in an action of any kind,” said Curole. “Yesterday they said to me ‘I get it, we did something.’ The fishermen were happy that the community was involved in making the statement. ”
“The fishing community has unrivaled knowledge of these coasts and must be allowed a seat at the table discussing damage assessment, remediation, mitigation and other efforts to minimize the spill’s impact,” said Sara Randall, program director at Commercial Fishermen of America. “Additionally, great care must be taken to advise the public of associated risks and to protect the health of the many thousands of people who are assisting with clean up efforts.
“The Commercial Fishermen of America (CFA) stands in support of our brothers and sisters in the Gulf of Mexico and the repeated disasters, first natural and now man-made, that they and their families have to endure,” added Randall.
CFA is calling on the nation to ensure that those responsible for this travesty do everything possible to make the Gulf and its dependent communities whole. In the meantime, the organizations is urging the administration and Congress must do whatever is necessary to direct adequate resources and assistance to aid the people of the Gulf and the resource upon which they rely.
For more information, please see: http://www.cfafish.org or contact Margaret Curole, (985)870-5486, or Sara Randall, (415)561-FISH x222.
Fishermen and Conservationists Sue Obama Administration Over Handling of BP Spill
In related news, the Gulf Restoration Network and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) on May 18 for exempting oil companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from disclosing blowout and worst case oil spill scenarios, as well as formulating detailed plans for such. The groups are represented by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and the New Orleans law firm of Waltzer & Wiygul.
“I’ve worked for 15 years to protect and restore the beaches, wetlands and wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico,” said Cynthia Sarthou of the Gulf Restoration Network. “We are bracing ourselves against the environmental catastrophe this will bring. BP’s drilling disaster will likely destroy countless victories we’ve won for a healthy Gulf.”
“This case is about lax regulation by the Minerals Management Service,” said Earthjustice attorney David Guest. “It is actually easier to get a permit for an offshore oil well than for a hot dog stand.”
By law, MMS is required to include blowout and worst case oil spill scenarios before approving exploratory offshore drilling plans. These blowout and worst case scenario disclosures must include the maximum volume of oil, the maximum flow rate, the maximum duration of the blowout, and an estimate of the time it would take to contain the resulting oil spill.
For the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploration plan, MMS approved the plan without this required step because MMS had issued a notice to oil companies telling them that they didn’t have to comply with those blowout and worst case oil spill rules. Additionally, MMS was required by law to produce an analysis of potential environmental impacts in the event of a blow-out; but failed to take that necessary step as well.
“The MMS failed to protect us from the worst-case scenario of offshore drilling and now we are watching this scenario play out before our eyes,” said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. “Response to the blowout has included desperate measures like lighting the sea on fire, pouring potent chemicals into the water, using trash and human hair to prevent the flow of oil, and proposals to dredge the sea and create new barrier islands. If oil companies aren’t capable of responding to a blowout, they shouldn’t be permitted to drill.”
For more information, contact: David Guest, Earthjustice, (850) 681-0031, ext. 103.
California “Marine Guardian” Calls for New Oil Drilling off California Coast
As Gulf Coast residents deal with the unprecedented disaster of the BP oil spill, an oil industry lobbyist who has served on three panels charged with designating “marine protected areas” along the California is calling for more oil drilling off the California coast.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, affirmed the oil industry’s mantra of “drill, baby, drill” in an interview with Guy Kovner of Santa Rosa Press Democrat (http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100506/ARTICLES/100509630/1350?p=1&tc=pg).
In a bizarre case of corporate greenwashing that could only take place under the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzegger, Reheis-Boyd is chair of Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast. She also was a member of the MLPA Task Force for the North Central Coast and now sits on the task force for the North Coast.
These panels are charged with developing so-called “marine protected areas (MPAs) that remove sustainable fishermen, American Indians and seaweed harvesters from public trust ocean waters while doing nothing to stop water pollution, habitat destruction and oil and gas spills.
“California offshore wells operate in shallow water, no more than 1,200 feet deep, a ‘whole different dynamic’ than the Gulf of Mexico’s deep water wells,” Reheis-Boyd claimed, according to the article.
“Reheis-Boyd conceded that the industry will ‘learn lessons’ from the gulf blowout, but the choices remain unchanged for a state that imports 320 million barrels of oil a year: either expand in-state production or ‘become more dependent on foreign oil,’” Kovner stated.
On March 31, Reheis-Boyd told the San Francisco Chronicle that she hopes the Obama administration “will eventually allow new drilling off the California coast.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/31/MNU41CO3O4.DTL)
“We are disappointed,” Reheis-Boyd said, in response to Obama’s March 30 announcement that the U.S. will begin drilling for oil in the waters off the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico – and NOT in the waters off California. “When you look at the resources here, they’re considerable.”
Critics of her appointment to the panels believe that she has been placed there to protect the oil industry’s interests – and to make sure that so-called “Marine Protected Areas” don’t conflict with the operation of existing offshore oil rigs or the installation of new rigs if the Obama administration lifts the ban on oil drilling off the California coast.
“There are more than 10 billion barrels of crude oil reserves located off the California coast and huge reserves of natural gas,” Reheis-Boyd said earlier this year in “A Message from WSPA” on the oil industry group’s website (http://www.wspa.org/wspa-message.aspx?id=17). “Our industry has demonstrated over the past 40 years it can and does operate safely in the marine environment.”
The oil industry demonstrated how “safely” it “operates” in the marine environment by engaging in practices that led to the deaths of 9 oil rig workers and to unprecedented environmental devastation along the Gulf Coast!
The current tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico makes it clear how so-called “Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) like those developed by Catherine Reheis-Boyd and other corporate interests under the Schwarzenegger administration have absolutely nothing to do with real marine protection. If Reheis-Boyd ever gets her way in pressuring the state and federal governments to allow new oil drilling off the California coast, we could see a similar tragedy to the BP spill unfold in California’s ocean waters.
“Unfortunately, marine protected areas, as currently designed, don’t protect against oil spills,” said Sara Randall. “What’s the point of developing marine protected areas if they don’t protect the resources?”
danbacher FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 19 May 2010
Contact Person: Patrick Porgans (415) 306-3317
Frostbite Enforcement Action – All Bark: No “Real” Protection for Salmonid Species in Sight
Recent “enforcement” action by the federal agents against Green Pastures Valley vineyard for the alleged killing and “taking” of endangered salmonid species in Felta Creek, a tributary to the Russian River, although commendable, is too little too late.
A fine of $150,000 was assessed against the vintner for allegedly killing coho salmon, on two separate occasions back in 2008 and 2009. The alleged kill resulted by sucking so much water out of the stream, during a frost event, to protect vines from frost bite (a common event in California’s “Wine Country”) leaving the salmon high and dry to die.http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ole/news/news_swd_051110.htm
The National Ocean Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Office of the General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation issued a press release, stating: “This penalty should send a strong message that we put a high priority on protecting species listed under the Endangered Species Act,” said Don Masters, Special Agent in Charge of the Southwest Division of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE). “But make no mistake, we would much rather work with landowners to find ways to protect these fish instead of issuing penalty assessments.”
Since the early 2000s Porgans, in unison with former clients, worked diligently with NOAA personnel to get them off the dime and into the field to salvage the remnants of what is left of a once legendary anadromous fisheries population in the Russian River watershed.
NOAA’s agents have been “investigating” the “take” of more than 300 coho salmon in the spring of 2008, with 31 of those fish dying, alleging “…the winery was aware of the existence of coho salmon in that Creek before the incident, and informed the vineyard that its frost protection practices were having adverse impacts on endangered species in the watershed. However, in the spring of 2009, the firm allegedly again used practices that killed an additional five fish.”
The agents’ claim that this enforcement action sends a clear signal to others in “Wine Country” about NOAA’s intent to prosecute water diversions that kill listed species sounds like more bark than bite. The deplorable decline in salmonid species in the Russian River watershed, and the Pacific Northwest, is a testament to NOAA’s “enforcement” track record. NOAA’s civil enforcement action is more about protecting what’s left of its toothless guard-dog reputation, then actually holding the politically-connected elite in “Wine Country” accountable; this is a classic case of going after the small “fry” and letting the King Fish off the hook.
Undoubtedly, NOAA’s two year investigation has been time consuming and expensive. Contact was made with NOAA’s Lesli Bales-Sherrod, to ascertain if criminal charges are to be filed, and to inquire as to how much the investigation cost the taxpayers to date. We are awaiting Ms. Sherrod’s reply regarding the costs. It would not be surprising if the investigation cost more than the $115,000 fine.
Critics contend that this is not about the killing or “taking” of a 37 endangered coho salmon. NOAA has spent billions of taxpayers’ dollars on salmon restoration efforts in the Pacific Northwest, and government officials, in concert with their legions of “experts” have and continue to expend billions more to double fish populations in California; which have been an abysmal failure.
The public has the right to know why the agents’ opted to go with just a civil action; and there are still questions about the hundreds of “threatened” steelhead that were killed during those two events, and in other instances where salmonids were killed due to frost protection activities throughout the watershed.
There is nothing wrong with OLE’s policy to make every effort to work with vintners to ensure compliance with the law; however, it must remain mindful of its role as a watchdog not a lap dog. Law enforcement agents conceded that the vintner has prior knowledge of the circumstances leading to the second killing; yet, no word about criminal charges.
It is important to keep the gravity of “kill/take” in perspective – if a fisherman was caught with an endangered coho salmon, he can be arrested and charged with a felony for possession. Likewise, if any person had a feather of a bald-headed eagle, which dropped out of the sky, they also could be charged with a felony.
NOAA’s action is symptomatic and is comparable to being bitten by a dog without teeth. The major problem facing the Russian River and other regions of the State is fish are being deprived water, which is purportedly afforded to them by law. NOAA personnel have essentially bent over backwards in their attempts to work with and appease the vineyard community. In so doing, they have suffered the “blowback” and the brunt of the criticism for this civil enforcement action. However, the real problem with the killing and “taking” of listed salmonid species, some of which are on the brink of extinction, is the result of government depriving fish water.
…more…
Providing water for fish in California is the primary responsibility of the State Water Resources Control Board, which, if you can imagine, has even a worse enforcement record than NOAA. For example, the Board was aware of more than 1,771 illegal water diversions and/or reservoirs in the Russian River watershed, while the fish kill on Felta Creek and other streams were taking place. Those illegal diversions and reservoirs contribute to the depravation of water required for listed species survival, especially during frost events. However, the Board opted to take all of its enforcement personnel out of the basin to conduct investigatory work elsewhere in the state, relating to illegal water diversions, and, essentially have allowed the violations to go unabated.
If, NOAA is really interested in sending a message or sinking its “teeth” into an entity that deserves to be charged with violating the Endangered Species Act, then it should file charges against the Board, for aiding and abetting the ongoing take of endangered species, by failing to ensure water for the protection of Public Trust Resources. After all, that is neither the vintners’ nor NOAA’s responsibility.
Since 2004 efforts have been underway via the Board to adopt the North Coast Instream Flow Policy (as provided by California Assembly Bill 2121 (Water Code 1259.4) (2004). Coincidentally, on May 4, 2010 the Board adopted a policy for water quality control titled “Policy for Maintaining Instream Flows in Northern California Coastal Streams”. The policy purportedly contains principles and guidelines for maintaining instream flows for the purposes of water right administration and “protection” of fish. Here again, this protracted piece of legislation amounts to just another buy-time stall tactic, is fundamentally flawed, and watered down. The primary reasons is because no one seems to really know how much water is being illegally diverted from within the Russian River watershed, responsible for killing fish; and for the few that may know, they are not letting on. Lastly, it will take years before that type of quantifiable data will be gathered, if then. Here is the take on the Board’s policy by a “well-established” law firm:
• The Policy and supporting technical documentation is approximately 800 pages
• There is also a “functional equivalent” CEQA compliance document that is several hundred pages
• It appears the people most affected by the policy have been largely unaware that the policy even exists
• The Policy is so complex that affected individuals cannot read the policy and understand how it will be applied, and how they will be affected.
It is important to keep in mind that most of the data on stream flow and diversions will be gathered and provided by the vintners not the government. The question is, will the public continue to take the bait – while the fate of the salmonid species rest in the government’s hands, which continues to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars to “protect” fish.
FYI: NOAA OLE Contact Person is Lesli Bales-Sherrod, 301-427-2300 ext. 103
danbacher 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2010
Contact: Erica Terence, Klamath Riverkeeper, (c) 530-627-3311
Tom Lyons, California Coastkeeper Alliance, (c) 415-810-2960
Klamath River: Fishable, Swimmable?
Activists Take the Clean Water Act into Their Own Hands to Restore Flows in the Klamath
(Orleans, CA) Thirty-eight years after Congress promised fishable, swimmable, drinkable waterways with the passage of the Clean Water Act, too many rivers in the Klamath River Watershed lack the most basic element of a healthy waterway: water.
“How can you regulate water quality without sufficient flows of water?” asks Erica Terence, the Klamath Riverkeeper.
On May 18, 2010, the California Coastkeeper Alliance and Klamath Riverkeeper led a discussion on the health of the wild and scenic but embattled Klamath River. Discussions at the training centered around two key tributaries to the Klamath where salmon runs have crashed in recent years due to severe dewatering.
Last summer the Scott River became a dry riverbed as temperatures soared and the River’s entire flow was diverted by farmers and ranchers for irrigation. The neighboring Shasta River’s flow was similarly reduced to a trickle by diversions. In both rivers these flow shortages have stranded adult fish and left spawning grounds dry. The groups are exploring how a flow impairment listing under the Clean Water Act could help leverage more water in these streams to provide relief for endangered fish runs there.
Every two years, California must compile a list of the water bodies that are too polluted to be safely used for drinking water or for fishing, swimming, boating, surfing, aquatic habitat, or the other “beneficial uses” that Californians used to enjoy more widely. Currently, the Water Board focuses on traditional sources of pollution, but has only acknowledged flows in a handful of instances.
“The Clean Water Act is one of the most powerful tools to ensure clean, abundant waterways,” says Tom Lyons with the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “But its applicability to flows in our rivers, creeks, and streams has been under-utilized, something our organizations are working to correct.”
As the list of polluted waterways grows longer every year, restoring waterways for fishing, swimming and drinking seems increasingly out of reach. Rivers in the Klamath watershed are impaired by toxic algae, temperature, and nutrient pollution caused by dams, cattle grazing and irrigated agriculture. All of these problems are exacerbated by lack of adequate waterway flows.
Over the next few months, the State Water Board will finalize the 2010 polluted waters list and collect data for the 2012 list. The Board’s creation of a list of “impaired,” or severely polluted, water bodies is only the first step. The federal Clean Water Act and state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act together require the Board to identify the pollutants responsible, and design and implement a plan to restore the waterways’ original uses.
Klamath Riverkeeper restores water quality and fisheries throughout the Klamath watershed, bringing vitality and abundance back to the river and its people.http://www.klamathriverkeeper.org.
California Coastkeeper Alliance is co-sponsoring workshops on impaired waters throughout California during May and June. http://www.cacoastkeeper.org/programs/clean-abundant/severely-polluted-waters.
danbacher
“Since time immemorial, the grove has held, and still holds, great cultural and spiritual significance for local indigenous tribal peoples, some of whom trace their ancestry to this place,” said Priscilla Hunter, chair of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a coalition of 10 federally recognized Native American tribes that oppose the project.
Here is the press release from Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity
Contact: Kerul Dyer, Environmental Protection Information Center, (707) 834-3358
Center for Biological Diversity, Peter Galvin (707)-986-2600, Jeff Miller (510) 499-9185
Conservation Groups Vow Legal Challenge Against Highway Widening Threatening Ancient Humboldt County Redwoods
CalTrans Approves Project Through Richardson Grove State Park That Would Harm Old-growth Trees, Marbled Murrelet Habitat, and Rural North Coast Towns
GARBERVILLE, Calif.- The Environmental Protection Information Center and the Center for Biological Diversity today vowed an all out legal challenge against an ill-advised highway-widening project that not only threatens the ancient redwoods of Richardson Grove State Park, but could also change the rural character of Humboldt County.
The California Department of Transportation filed official notice today that the project was approved, but the agency has not yet made its final Environmental Impact Report for the controversial project available to the public. The highway project is widely opposed by local residents, business owners, conservation and Native American groups, and economists as unnecessary and damaging to the state park, the venerable old-growth grove and its wildlife, tourism, and the coastal communities of Humboldt County.
“Anyone who cares about California’s redwoods and the rural charm of Humboldt County should weigh in to stop this disastrous project,” said Kerul Dyer Richardson Grove campaign coordinator for the Environmental Protection Information Center. “The old-growth redwood grove within the state park is supposed to be fully protected and not vulnerable to destructive projects like this one.”
“The project as proposed by Caltrans threatens to destroy old-growth redwood root systems and harm critical habitat for the endangered marbled murrelet,” said Peter Galvin, conservation director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re prepared to fight this and call on elected officials to pressure Caltrans to rescind its approval.”
Caltrans and certain business interests have attempted for decades to provide access for larger commercial trucks through the area, and in the past few years have pushed for widening the narrow, meandering section of Highway 101 through the world-renowned ancient redwood grove in Richardson Grove State Park. This park at the southern entrance to Humboldt County is considered to be the “redwood curtain” protecting the small communities of the north coast from blight and urban development. Public outcry has so far protected the grove from development, but Caltrans and a handful of business interests have aggressively pushed for access for larger trucks.
“Since time immemorial, the grove has held, and still holds, great cultural and spiritual significance for local indigenous tribal peoples, some of whom trace their ancestry to this place,” said Priscilla Hunter, chair of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a coalition of 10 federally recognized Native American tribes that oppose the project.
The Environmental Protection Information Center works to protect and restore ancient forests, watersheds, coastal estuaries, and native species in Northern California.http://www.wildcalifornia.org
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting endangered species and wild places.http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
Background on the Park and the Project
Established in 1922, Richardson Grove State Park was recently rated as one of the top 100 state parks in the United States, and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world every year to explore one of the last protected stands of accessible old-growth redwoods. It is here you first encounter significant old-growth forest when driving north, and this popular tourist destination has provided many people with a transformative experience walking through some of the oldest living beings on the planet.
The proposed spoiling of Richardson Grove and widening of the highway through the “Richardson Grove Operational Improvement Project” does not serve the region’s best interests and threatens the area’s environment, economy, and way of life. The Humboldt County Economic Development Program has used public funding for a misleading public-relations campaign claiming the widening and increased large-truck traffic are needed for safety and commerce and will benefit Humboldt County through falling retail prices, bolstering the local economy, and making travel into the county from the south safer.
Bigger trucks do not somehow translate to consumer savings, but do increase wear and tear on roadways and decrease safety for smaller vehicles. The widening would provide incentive for big-box retailers like Walmart and Home Depot to move into Humboldt County, to the detriment of local businesses. The reality is that this project has the potential to change forever a rural lifestyle cherished by residents of the North Coast.
Caltrans claims the “realignment” project is needed to safely accommodate large-truck travel, remove the restriction of larger vehicles on this section of highway, and improve movement of commercial goods. However, it appears from Caltrans’ own statements and signage that the portion of road for which this project is contemplated is currently designated for larger trucks and that Caltrans has exaggerated potential safety problems.
The project was never identified as essential or a priority project in the numerous planning documents most relevant to statewide transportation by the California Transportation Commission or even Caltrans – such as the 2006 Corridor Management Plan for Route 101: Golden Gate-Oregon Border, the 2006 and 2008 State Transportation Improvement Program documents, or 2008 Interegional Transportation Improvement System documents. Caltrans has not established that this project is necessary for safety or for goods movement and the economy.
Advocates for the grove forced the agency to complete a full Environmental Impact Report, rather than the Categorical Exemption and minimal environmental analysis Caltrans originally tried to employ. Caltrans’ preferred project appears to be a predetermined decision taken in advance of the environmental analysis. Federal law prohibits transportation projects on public-park lands except in cases where there is no feasible alternative. Since smaller-sized commercial trucks already travel through the grove to deliver goods to Humboldt County, one feasible alternative would be to leave the highway as it is and retain the integrity of Richardson Grove.
The project is opposed by the Environmental Protection Information Center, Save Richardson Grove Coalition, North Coast Environmental Center, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Friends of the Eel River, Center for Biological Diversity, Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, among others.
Additional Quotes
William Cullen Bryant, as quoted in the brochure for Richardson Grove State Park: “The groves were God’s first temples.”
“Caltrans has released a deeply flawed environmental analysis of the project’s impacts,” said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “They have not fully disclosed the damage the project would do to scores of protected ancient redwoods up to 15 feet in diameter and the ecology of the grove, nor have they addressed other environmental and cultural ramifications.”
“We shouldn’t sacrifice Richardson Grove, a publicly owned recreational and biological jewel, so that a few companies dependent on antiquated business plans can increase profits,” said Kerul Dyer, Richardson Grove campaign coordinator for the Environmental Protection Information Center. “Why should the public take the risk of damaging this ancient forest for the benefit of a few companies? It is critical that people from across California speak up now, to protect this natural public resource for future generations. With 97 percent of the old growth gone, we cannot afford to risk losing the remaining groves for any reason, much less an ill-conceived construction project.”
“This project is going to close me down for the entire duration of the construction, and after two bad economic years, it’s hard to face yet another,” said Dan Beleme, a local businessman who owns the tourist attraction One Log House near Garberville. “A lot of the local businesses here may not make it back at all. There are other options that are not even being explored and many other ways to solve the trucking issue without ruining the environment of the area.”
“The real beneficiaries of this project are the big trucking firms and franchise retailers that will be subsidized by the cost of this project,” said Barbara Kennedy, a retired attorney and community leader in the Save Richardson Grove Coalition. “The problem of fostering this type of development, which depends on distribution over great distances, was just highlighted by the grounding of airlines due to the volcanic ash, when produce and flowers grown in Africa and destined for European markets could not reach their destinations. Localization and sustainability in a changing world should be key to designing future transportation systems.”
***************************************
danbacher | by Dan Bacher
Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) yesterday announced that he will file an amicus curiae brief in support of the pending lawsuit by the cities of New Bedford and Gloucester regarding the Obama administration’s proposed catch share program. Frank also said that he plans to organize Members of Congress to join the brief. The catch share program, supported by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenko, creates a de facto privatization of ocean resources. Where catch shares have been implemented, the inevitable result is the concentration of public trust fisheries into the hands of few big corporate fishing operations. “The fact that the Obama administration has so far refused our request to increase allocations for this fishing season makes the catch share program completely unworkable,” said Frank. “Catch shares is a controversial and radical change, and to institute this new system while also drastically reducing catch allocations guarantees that it would be devastating to the fishing industry. For this reason, I will support the cities’ lawsuit.” Frank spoke with Mayor Lang yesterday to discuss the lawsuit and they will continue to work closely on this issue. The catch shares program is opposed by a broad coalition of fishing, environmental and consumer groups throughout the country. This scheme occurs in the broader context of the increasing corporate privatization of global ocean public trust resources. “The ocean waters around the United States and the wildlife in them are important to our health, wealth, and future,” according to Food and Water Watch. “Each one of us has the privilege to use them and the right to help protect them. Unfortunately, right now a plan is underway to limit access to ocean resources to only a handful of individuals and corporations under the guise of conservation.” In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, overseen by oil industry, marina development, real estate and other corporate interests, is funded privately by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The initiative, rife with conflicts of interests, corrruption, racism and mission creep, is a cynical attempt to kick Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters off the traditional areas of the ocean while doing nothing to stop pollution, oil drilling and habitat destruction. Both the MLPA in California and attempts by the Obama administration to privatize ocean resources through the catch share program and ocean zoning must be opposed by all of those who want to see our nation’s fisheries restored and stop the seizure of our country’s fisheries by greedy corporate interests. I applaud Frank’s filing of an amicus brief against the catch shares program. Help fight for our oceans and stop the catch shares program by going to www.foodandwaterwatch.org. |
danbacher by Dan Bacher
Federal Judge Oliver Wanger issued a ruling Tuesday morning challenging the federal biological opinion protecting Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales.
Wanger ruled that the Delta Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District have, “by a preponderance of evidence, shown legal and equitable grounds for injunctive relief.”
Environmental, fishing and tribal groups said the ruling was bad news for collapsing populations of salmon and other species and the coastal and inland communities that depend on healthy fisheries, while agribusiness advocates celebrated the ruling as a victory of “farmers over fish.”
“We are disappointed by today’s ruling, which is bad news for anyone who cares about California’s wild salmon,” said Doug Obegi, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attorney, on his blog (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dobegi/court_decision_puts_california.html). “However, we will continue to urge the Court to uphold these protections, as they are critical to protecting California’s wild salmon, the fishing and Tribal communities that depend on them and the health of the Bay-Delta estuary, which supplies drinking water to millions of Californians.”
Obegi said that Judge Wanger found on a preliminary basis that the federal agencies had not strictly adhered to all of the necessary procedures in the biological opinion that protects salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and orcas from the impacts of the State Water Project (SWP) and the federal Central Valley Project (CVP).
“The Court declined to issue the injunction waiving the protections of the biological opinion, finding that no alternative measure had been offered that would adequately protect the species, and has ordered a hearing tomorrow to discuss how to proceed,” said Obegi. “The Court recognized that pumping restrictions are necessary to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of wild California salmon and steelhead.”
In its ruling, the Court found that unrestricted pumping, as some of the plaintiffs had proposed, could cause “irreparable harm” to California’s wild salmon and steelhead, as well as the fishing and tribal communities that depend on healthy salmon runs, according to Obegi.
Wanger recently concluded “the economic pain and hardship has been no less to the fishing industry that relies on salmon than has been the economic consequence to the Central Valley agricultural community.”
In April, the court also recognized the significant harm to Winnemem Wintu Tribe and its spiritual and cultural foundations, finding that these interests are irreparable and protected, and that there are extreme hardships on all sides.
“However, out of the numerous actions and requirements in the nearly 800 page biological opinion, the Court concluded that specific numeric flow restrictions in two of the biological opinion’s protective measures were not adequately explained by the agency,” Obegi noted. “The Court found that it could not conclude if these measures ‘are adequately protective, too protective, or not protective enough.’”
The Court ordered a hearing today – and possibly additional hearings in the future – to determine if “some other level of pumping levels would be safe for the species,” said Obegi.
Attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation, a right wing property rights group, applauded Federal Judge Oliver Wanger’s issuance of a preliminary injunction against a federal regulatory action that the organization claims has “contributed to devastating water cutbacks for farms and communities in Central and Southern California.”
PLF has been representing some San Joaquin Valley growers that the organization contends “have been hard-hit by the federally imposed water cutbacks.” The case is Stewart & Jasper v. Salazar.
“Judge Wanger recognized that federal regulators had not taken account of how water cutoffs could damage the human environment, and they did not use the best available science,” said PLF attorney Brandon Middleton.
“This is a powerful, excellent ruling,” said Middleton. “The judge is telling the feds that they can’t ignore the harsh human and environmental impacts of cutting off water to farms, workers, businesses, and communities. The judge is also saying the feds can’t get away with using slippery science to justify environmental restrictions that rob communities of their lifeblood – water.”
Members of commercial and recreational fishing groups are appalled that the judge favored corporate agribusiness and junior water rights holders over fish and fishermen in his ruling.
“I was extremely disappointed by Wanger’s ruling,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Federation of Fishermen’s’ Associations (PCFFA), one of the plaintiffs in the case. “It’s as if fish and fishing jobs and communities don’t count.”
However, Glen Spain, the Northwest Director of the PCFFA, noted what the Judge is actually going to do about his ruling – whether to remand back to the agencies to fix it but leave the BiOp intact, cancel those measures entirely, or mix and match, putting the flows under his specific direction in the interim – remains to be seen after the additional hearing today on just that issue of relief.
“Also, this ruling affects only a small subset of all the biological opinion, albeit some of the most important ones for maintaining Delta flows,” said Spain, “so this setback is not the end of the struggle to restore collapsing salmon populations by any means.”
Earthjustice Attorneys Erin Tovin and Mike Sherwood, who received legal assistance from NRDC attorneys, are the lead attorneys in this case.
To read a copy of the decision, go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31556079/Salmon-Findings-of-Fact-Judge-Oliver-Wanger
danbacher | by Dan Bacher
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process, funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Foundation, is one of the most egregious examples of corporate greenwashing in California history. Rather than actually protect the ocean as the law was originally intended to do, Schwarzenegger and his collaborators have taken pollution, oil drilling, habitat protection and all other human uses of the ocean other than fishing off the table. The MLPA Initiative is responsible for engaging in cultural genocide by banning the Kashia Pomo Tribe from harvesting seaweed and shellfish off their sacred site, “Danaka,” in Sonoma County. It has showed no respect for tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights. This is an overt violation of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Article 32, Section 2, of the Declaration mandates “free prior and informed consent” in consultation with the indigenous population affected by a state action (http://www.iwgia.org/sw248.asp). The MLPA Initiative is responsible for killing an endangered blue whale off Fort Bragg in October 2009 by contracting out a law-breaking survey operation to survey the ocean bottom. It is responsible for until recently violating the Bagley-Keene Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by banning video and audio coverage of the initiative’s secretive work sessions. It is responsible for installing an oil industry lobbyist, a marina developer, a real estate executive and other corporate interests as “marine guardians” to kick Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters, the greatest defenders of the oceans, off the ocean. It is responsible for attempting to divide and conquer environmentalists, fishermen and tribal communities by trying to split them into separate groups in the Regional Stakeholders Group on the North Coast. Ken Wiseman, the executive director of the MLPA Initiative, has also issued a draconian “gag rule” that prohibits members of the stakeholders group from speaking to the press. It is responsible for completely discarding the results of any scientists who disagree with the MLPA’s pre-ordained conclusions. These include the peer reviewed study by Dr. Ray Hilborn, Dr. Boris Worm and 18 other scientists, featured in Science magazine in July 2009, that concluded that the California current had the lowest rate of fishery exploitation of any place studied on the planet. It is responsible for completely refusing to acknowledge that the northern California coast has the most restrictive bottomfish seasons of anywhere in the world along with the largest MPA in the United States – the Rockfish Conservation area that extends along the entire continental shelf of California. Finally, it is responsible for refusing to hear the pleas of the representatives of California Fish and Game Wardens Association, who oppose the creation of any new MPAs until they have enough funding for wardens to patrol existing reserves. That’s why the wardens refer to MPAs as “Marine Poaching Areas.” Why do NGO advocates of the MLPA process refuse to acknowledge the many problems of the MLPA, rather than showing some integrity by joining with environmental justice advocates, Indian Tribes, fishermen and real environmentalists to call for its suspension? Could it be that they’re afraid to challenge their funding source, the Resources Legacy Foundation, the private corporation that also funds the MLPA? There is nothing “green” about the MLPA. It is part of Schwarzenegger’s plan to privatize resource management in California. It is essential for everybody concerned about the future of California fisheries to understand that Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative is designed to greenwash his campaign to build a peripheral canal and more dams and drive Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and other species over the edge of extinction. The same corporate “environmentalists” at the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and Nature Conservancy who support the peripheral canal as the “solution” to the Delta’s environmental crisis are the same ones who back the MLPA all of the way. The direct connection between Schwarzenegger’s MLPA and peripheral canal campaigns is evidenced by the fact that Phil Isenberg has been the top official in both processes. Isenberg was chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Central Coast, the first region targetted in the fast-track MLPA process. Schwarzenegger also selected Isenberg to be chair of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a thinly disguised process designed to further the Governor’s plan to build a peripheral canal to facilitate massive exports of water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California. He also recently selected Isenberg to chair the Delta Stewardship Canal in order to make sure that the peripheral canal is built. More recently, Schwarzenegger on May 14 appointed Michael Eaton, the executive director of the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy. It is very clear that the Governor has appointed Eaton, who has presided over the funding of MLPA process, to greenwash his plans to build the canal, an environmentally destructive plan that would cost Californians an estimated $23 billion to $53 billion. There needs to be an immediate federal and state investigation of the corruption, conflicts of interests, mission creep, violations of human rights and other violations of state and federal laws that have occurred under the MLPA. For more information about the violation of indigenous subsistence, cultural and religious rights under the MLPA, go to: http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/content.php?r=221. |
danbacher Court Ruling Favors Corporate Agribusiness over Salmon and Fishermen
by Dan Bacher
Federal Judge Oliver Wanger issued a ruling this morning challenging the federal biological opinion protecting Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales.
Wanger ruled that the Delta Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District have, “by a preponderance of evidence, shown legal and equitable grounds for injunctive relief.”
Environmental, fishing and tribal groups said the ruling was bad news for collapsing populations of salmon and other species and the coastal and inland communities that depend on healthy fisheries, while agribusiness advocates celebrated the ruling as a victory of “farmers over fish.”
“We are disappointed by today’s ruling, which is bad news for anyone who cares about California’s wild salmon,” said Doug Obegi, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attorney, on his blog (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dobegi/court_decision_puts_california.html). “However, we will continue to urge the Court to uphold these protections, as they are critical to protecting California’s wild salmon, the fishing and Tribal communities that depend on them and the health of the Bay-Delta estuary, which supplies drinking water to millions of Californians.”
Obegi said that Judge Wanger found on a preliminary basis that the federal agencies had not strictly adhered to all of the necessary procedures in the biological opinion that protects salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and orcas from the impacts of the State Water Project (SWP) and the federal Central Valley Project (CVP).
“The Court declined to issue the injunction waiving the protections of the biological opinion, finding that no alternative measure had been offered that would adequately protect the species, and has ordered a hearing tomorrow to discuss how to proceed,” said Obegi. “The Court recognized that pumping restrictions are necessary to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of wild California salmon and steelhead.”
In its ruling, the Court found that unrestricted pumping, as some of the Plaintiffs had proposed, could cause “irreparable harm” to California’s wild salmon and steelhead, as well as the fishing and tribal communities that depend on healthy salmon runs, according to Obegi.
Wanger recently concluded “the economic pain and hardship has been no less to the fishing industry that relies on salmon than has been the economic consequence to the Central Valley agricultural community.”
In April, the court also recognized the significant harm to Winnemem Wintu Tribe and its spiritual and cultural foundations, finding that these interests are irreparable and protected, and that there are extreme hardships on all sides.
“However, out of the numerous actions and requirements in the nearly 800 page biological opinion, the Court concluded that specific numeric flow restrictions in two of the biological opinion’s protective measures were not adequately explained by the agency,” Obegi noted. “The Court found that it could not conclude if these measures ‘are adequately protective, too protective, or not protective enough.’”
The Court ordered a hearing tomorrow – and possibly additional hearings in the future – to determine if “some other level of pumping levels would be safe for the species,” said Obegi.
Attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation, a right wing property rights group, applauded Federal Judge Oliver Wanger’s issuance of a preliminary injunction against a federal regulatory action that the organization claims has “contributed to devastating water cutbacks for farms and communities in Central and Southern California.”
PLF has been representing some San Joaquin Valley growers that the organization contends “have been hard-hit by the federally imposed water cutbacks.” The case is Stewart & Jasper v. Salazar.
“Judge Wanger recognized that federal regulators had not taken account of how water cutoffs could damage the human environment, and they did not use the best available science,” said PLF attorney Brandon Middleton.
“This is a powerful, excellent ruling,” said Middleton. “The judge is telling the feds that they can’t ignore the harsh human and environmental impacts of cutting off water to farms, workers, businesses, and communities. The judge is also saying the feds can’t get away with using slippery science to justify environmental restrictions that rob communities of their lifeblood – water.”
Members of commercial and recreational fishing groups are appalled that the judge favored corporate agribusiness over fish and fishermen in his ruling.
“I was extremely disappointed by Wanger’s ruling,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Federation of Fishermens’ Associations (PCFFA), one of the plaintiffs in the case. “It’s as if fish and fishing jobs and communities don’t count.”
However, Glen Spain, the Northwest Director of the PCFFA, noted what the Judge is actually going to do about his ruling – whether to remand back to the agencies to fix it but leave the BiOp intact, cancel those measures entirely, or mix and match, putting the flows under his specific direction in the interim – remains to be seen after the additional hearing tomorrow on just that issue of relief.
“Also, this ruling affects only a small subset of all the biological opinion, albeit some of the most important ones for maintaining Delta flows,” said Spain, “so this setback is not the end of the struggle to restore collapsing salmon populations by any means.”
Earthjustice Attorneys Erin Tovin and Mike Sherwood, who received legal assistance from NRDC attorneys, are the lead attorneys in this case.
To read a copy of the decision, go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31556079/Salmon-Findings-of-Fact-Judge-Oliver-Wanger
danbacher by Dan Bacher
An official from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative announced today that he would finally allow the filming and audio recording of “work sessions” of the widely-contested process.
This victory for freedom of the press was made possible only because of the large outcry from David Gurney and other North Coast journalists, environmentalists, fishermen and civil liberties advocates about the MLPA’s violation of the Bagley-Keene Act and the First Amendment.
A May 13 letter, sent by the editors of the Independent Coast Observer of Gualala to MLPA executive director Ken Wiseman to protest the MLPA Initiative policy that prohibited audio or video recording and photography at these sessions, prompted the rescinding of the policy.
“This policy banning such recordings is a violation of the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act,” stated J. Stephen McLaughlin, Editor and Publisher, and D. Glenn O’Hara, News Editor, in their letter to Wiseman. “We hereby request the policy be rescinded.”
“According to California Newspaper Publishers Assn. General Counsel Jim Ewert, because of the Memorandum of Understanding, the MLPAI is performing functions which would otherwise be done by state agencies, which makes it subject to Bagley-Keene,” the letter stated. “Bagley-Keene applies to all meetings and workshops of the MLPAI.”
In his response, Wiseman continued to claim that the process, funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, is not covered by Bagley-Keene, but said he would allow recording of “work sessions” of the group “within the spirit and language” of Bagley-Keene anyway.
“Although our legal counsel is in disagreement with yours as to whether or not our process is covered by Bagley-Keene, the MLPA Initiative has always sought to exceed the requirements of the law by having the most open and transparent process available,” said Wiseman. “Although we are certain that a non-quorum work session is clearly not covered by the law, we will allow recording and videotaping at the upcoming work sessions so that such a minor issue does not become a distraction to the important work at hand.”
“We will allow these activities within the spirit and language of Bagley-Keene, which states ‘unless to do so would constitute a persistent disruption,’” added Wiseman. “The public and the press have always been and will continue to be welcome at our meetings and work sessions.”
Gurney, who was arrested while filming an April 21 meeting of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force Meeting in Fort Bragg, was turned down in his formal request to record the upcoming NCRSG public meeting/workshop this week. Gurney is a freelance journalist and community programmer with Mendocino Community Television MCTV, Fort Bragg, a community journalist with KMUD radio in Redway, and an independent journalist with Jugglestone Productions.
Wiseman’s latest letter represents a reversal of the previous policy of the MLPA that was outlined in a news release. “To help create a ’safe space’ for NCRSG members to explore MPA ideas, the public will not be permitted to videotape, audiotape or take pictures of work group discussions during the work sessions,” the release stated. “Accredited media interested in covering an NCRSG work session must receive prior permission from the MLPA Initiative media relations team.”
The MLPAI staff have claimed that the initiative, funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation in a memorandum of understanding with the state of California, is exempt from the state’s open meeting laws. However, newspaper industry and civil liberties attorneys say the restrictions on speech and comment violate the Bagley-Keene Act and probably the California Constitution.
The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act of 1967 implements a provision of the California Constitution which declares that “the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny” and explicitly mandates open meetings for California State agencies, boards, and commissions.
The act facilitates accountability and transparency of government activities and protects the rights of citizens to participate in State government deliberations. California’s Brown Act of 1953 also protects citizen rights with regard to open meetings at the county and local government level.
“This is a definite victory for freedom of the press and first amendment rights,” said David Gurney. “This reversal of the MLPA Initiative’s previous position allows journalists to record the meetings and work sessions to provide a public record of the proceedings. The public has a right to know what is going on in these meetings and work sessions.”
He also noted that Bagley-Keene mandates public input at public meetings. “The MLPA officials are providing a de facto public commentary period at the MLPA meetings in Crescent City on May 19 and 20, in contrast to the previous meeting on April 20 and 21 when public comment wasn’t allowed,” said Gurney.
“Bagley-Keene requires that when a public meeting is held, an opportunity for public input must be allowed. I was arrested by a DFG warden, in a gross violation of my first amendment rights, as I was asking a question on April 21,” said Gurney.
Dan Hamburg, the Green Party 5th District Supervisor Candidate for Mendocino County and former Congressman, and other local activists had pledged to go to the meeting this week with video cameras to challenge the MLPA Initiative’s ban on recordings.
Hopefully, now Gurney, Hamburg and others will be able to record upcoming work sessions and meetings of the process without being threatened with arrest or expulsion from the meetings.
The MLPA Initiative will hold a North Coast Regional Stakeholders Group work session on May 19, 2010 at the Hampton Inn & Suites, 100 A Street, Crescent City, and a meeting on May 20, 2010 at the Elk Valley Rancheria Community Center, 2332 Howland Hill Road, Crescent City.
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) was passed by the Legislature and signed into law in by Governor Gray Davis in 1999. Under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the MLPA process has become a grotesque parody of “marine protection.”
The Blue Ribbon Task Forces that designate a series of so-called “marine protected areas” off the California coast are filled with oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. These “marine guardians” have completely taken water pollution, oil drilling, habitat destruction and other human activities other than fishing off the table in their twisted concept of “marine protection.”
The MLPA Initiative has outraged environmental justice and civil rights advocates by banning the Kashia Pomo Tribe from gathering seaweed and shellfish, as part of their religion, off Stewarts Point. To mark the final day before the unprecedented closure, tribal leaders held a historic ceremony on April 30 to bless an area where the Kashia Tribe of Pomo Indians has gathered seaweed, mussels, abalone, clams and fish for centuries.
Stewarts Point, called “Danaka” by the tribe, is sacred to the tribe since it is regarded in their creation story as the place where the tribe first stepped on land, according to Eric Wilder, former chair of the Kashia Pomo (http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/content.php?r=221).
danbacher
by Dan Bacher
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “Fish Terminator,” announced his appointments to the Water Commission and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy on Friday, May 14.
Paul Rodriguez, the grower, comedian and chair of the Latino Water Coalition who claimed recently that Schwarzenegger had appointed him to the Water Commission, wasn’t chosen for the Commission. However, Schwarzenegger did appoint Joe Del Bosque of Los Banos to represent San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness.
Del Bosque has been president and chief executive officer of Empresas Del Bosque, a “diversified farm” in the San Joaquin Valley, since 1985. He is a member of AgSafe, California Farm Bureau, California Latino Water Coalition and Western Growers Association – and is expected to push for increased water exports from the California Delta at the expense of collapsing Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish populations.
Surprisingly, Schwarzenegger appointed a recreational angler and conservationist, Charlton “Chuck” Bonham, 41, of Albany, to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy. Bonham, a Democrat, has worked for Trout Unlimited as California director and senior attorney since 2004 and, previously, was director of the organization’s California Water Project and staff attorney from 2000 to 2004.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the appointments represent corporate interests, water agencies and environmental NGOs that support Schwarzenegger’s campaign to build a peripheral canal around the Delta. The canal, estimated to cost anywhere from $23 to $53.8 billion, is likely to result in the extinction of threatened and endangered salmon and Delta fish populations. Of course, no representatives of California Indian Tribes, environmental justice groups or grassroots Delta organizations were appointed.
The appointments of Michael Eaton to the Conservancy and Anthony Saracino to the Water Commission are very problematic, since these folks are among the biggest corporate greenwashers in California water politics.
Eaton, 58, of Sacramento, has been executive director of the Resources Legacy Fund since 2007. From 1995 to 2007, he was senior project director at The Nature Conservancy and, from 1983 to 1995, was an independent environmental consultant.
The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation (RLFF) is a shadowy organization that privately funds the Governor’s corrupt and unjust Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative – and Eaton’s appointment by Schwarzenegger shows the direct connection between Schwarzenegger’s ocean privatization plans and his Delta water privatization and canal building schemes.
The RLFF’s MLPA Initiative has outraged environmental justice and civil rights advocates by banning the Kashia Pomo Tribe and other tribes from gathering seaweed and shellfish off Stewarts Point, a site sacred to the Kashia. In addition to practicing cultural genocide against indigenous people, initiative officials have openly violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act and the First Amendment by banning video journalists and still photographers from covering “work sessions” of the process.
The Blue Ribbon Task Forces that designate a series of so-called “marine protected areas” off the California coast are infested with oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. These “marine guardians” have completely taken water pollution, oil drilling, habitat destruction and other human activities other than fishing off the table in their twisted concept of “marine protection.”
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy was established as part of the water policy/water bond package signed by the Governor in 2009. As established in the law, this new conservancy is the “primary state agency for implementing ecosystem restoration and promoting economic vitality in the Delta,” according to the Governor’s Office.
How can Eaton, who is executive director of a corporation that presides over a process as corrupt and controversial as the MLPA, be possibly trusted to implement “ecosystem restoration” and promote “economic vitality” in the Delta by serving on the Delta Conservancy?
Saracino, 51, of Sacramento, has been director of the California Water Program at the Nature Conservancy, a group that wholeheartedly supports Schwarzenegger’s peripheral canal, since 2005. Previously, he was director of Schlumberger Water Service from 2001 to 2005.
The Nature Conservancy has been enmeshed in corporate greenwashing and real estate schemes throughout the United States and across the globe – and is reviled by grassroots environmentalists for its top-down, corporate approach to “conservation.”
The other appointees to the Water Commission are Andrew Ball of San Mateo, president and chief executive officer of Webcor Builders; Joseph Byrne of Los Angeles, a partner in the law office of Burke, Williams and Sorensen; Senator Dave Cogdill of Modesto, the author of Schwarzenegger-backed water policy/water bond legislation; Daniel Curtin of Sacramento, director for the California Conference of Carpenters; Kimberley Delfino, of Sacramento, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife; Luther Hintz of Brownsville, former executive director and general manager of Reclamation District Number 108; and Paul Kelley of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County supervisor and director of the Sonoma County Water Agency since 1995.
The prevalence of big business, water agency and agribusiness interests among Schwarzenegger’s Water Commission and Delta Conservancy appointees is typical of those who have been appointed to environmental posts in the Schwarzenegger regime. Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history, has made sure that the proverbial fox is guarding the hen house in the vast majority of his environmental appointments.
One of the most egregious examples of this is Schwarzenegger’s appointment of Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, to chair the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, and well as sit on the panels for the North Coast and North Central Coast. This curious “marine guardian” has called for new oil drilling off the California coast, in spite of the catastrophic BP Oil Spill that is now ravaging the Gulf of Mexico.
Also on May 14, Schwarzenegger announced his allocation of $1.1 billion from the 2010 Water Bond*, still pending voter approval, in his May revision of the state budget.
“The Governor is attempting to force the voters’ hand, telling them that if they don’t approve the current bond measure their communities won’t see a dime for these water projects, and that’s just ridiculous,” said Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis). “There are 4 billion dollars in approved bond funds just waiting to be spent on these projects. This is a gimmick that stages a false choice for voters between water and even more bond debt. It’s political blackmail.”
* Bottom of Page 17, http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/Revised/BudgetSummary/SummaryofSignificantChangesbyMajorProgramAreas.pdf
Here is the press release from the Governor’s Office about his appointments:
Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Appointments to Water Commission, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the following appointments to the California Water Commission:
Andrew Ball, 56, of San Mateo, has been president and chief executive officer of Webcor Builders since 1994. He is chair of the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley and founding member and advisory board member for the Business Council on Climate Change in association with the United Nations Global Compact. Ball is chair of the San Francisco Mayor’s Task Force on Green Buildings and the American Society of Concrete Contractors Sustainability Committee. He is a member of the San Francisco Building Code Advisory Committee including the Code Advisory Green Building Subcommittee. Ball is a Republican.
Joseph Byrne, 39, of Los Angeles, has been a partner in the law office of Burke, Williams and Sorensen since 2008, as a member of the Public Law and Environmental Law/Sustainability Practice groups. Previously, he was executive director of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, Region 1 from 2006 to 2008 and an attorney for Mayer Brown from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that, Byrne worked in the office of Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg, for the California State Assembly as counsel from 2000 to 2002 and a legislative consultant from 1998 to 2000. He was an attorney for Bonne, Bridges, Mueller, O’Keefe and Nichols from 1997 to 1998. Byrne is a member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association Board of Directors and the League of California Cities Environmental Quality Policy Committee. Byrne is a Democrat.
Dave Cogdill, 59, of Modesto, was elected to the California State Senate in 2006, where he represents the 14th District. He serves as chair of the Select Committee on Surplus Property, and vice-chair of the Senate Committees on Natural Resources and Water, Banking, Finance and Insurance and Public Safety. Cogdill is also a sitting member on the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee; Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation; Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs; and, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. Additionally, Cogdill served as the Senate Republican Leader from April 2008 to February 2009 and Senate Minority Whip from 2007 to 2008. Prior to that, he represented the 25th District in the State Assembly from 2000 to 2006, where he was vice-chair of the Committee on Rules, during which, he sat on the Budget Committee, Agriculture Committee and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. Cogdill was Assembly Minority Floor leader from 2002 to 2006. From 1981 to 2007, he owned and was an appraiser for Cogdill and Giomi. Cogdill is a Republican. This appointment will be effective December 6, 2010.
Daniel Curtin, 62, of Sacramento, has served as director for the California Conference of Carpenters since 2001 and previously held the same position from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2001, he served as chief deputy director for the Department of Industrial Relations. Prior to that, Curtin was a legislative advocate for the California Conference of Carpenters from 1987 to 1992. He serves on the State Compensation Insurance Fund Board of Directors and previously served on the Economic Development Commission and the Industrial Welfare Commission. Curtin is a Democrat.
Joe Del Bosque, 61, of Los Banos, has been president and chief executive officer of Empresas Del Bosque, a diversified farm in the San Joaquin Valley, since 1985. He is a member of AgSafe, California Farm Bureau, California Latino Water Coalition and Western Growers Association. Del Bosque is a Republican.
Kimberley Delfino, 42, of Sacramento, has been California program director for Defenders of Wildlife since 2000. Previously, she was legislative director for the California Public Interest Research Group in 2000. From 1997 to 2000, Delfino was staff attorney for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and, from 1994 to 1997, was associate attorney for Meyer and Glitzenstein. She is a member of the Sustainable Conservation Board of Directors. Delfino is registered decline-to-state.
Luther Hintz, 72, of Brownsville, worked for Reclamation District Number 108 as executive director from 2005 to 2006 and general manager from 1993 to 2005. Prior to that, he worked for Bookman-Edmonston Engineering as manager and principal engineer from 1979 to 1993, supervising engineer from 1969 to 1979, senior engineer from 1962 to 1969 and associate engineer from 1960 to 1962. Hintz was a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage until 2008. Hintz is a Republican.
Paul Kelley, 46, of Santa Rosa, has served as Sonoma County supervisor representing the Fourth District and director of the Sonoma County Water Agency since 1995. Previously, he was a teacher at Santa Rosa Christian School from 1993 to 1994. From 1992 to 1993, Kelley was lead programmer for KLH Consulting and, from 1990 to 1992, was a systems manager for Standard Structures. He is president of the Association of California Water Agencies. Kelley is a Republican. This appointment will be effective January 1, 2011.
Anthony Saracino, 51, of Sacramento, has been director of the California Water Program at The Nature Conservancy since 2005. Previously, he was director of Schlumberger Water Service from 2001 to 2005. Saracino was principal of Saracino, Kirby, Snow from 1995 to 2001 and was director of geologic and environmental services for Wallace Kuhl and Associates from 1984 to 1995. Saracino is a Democrat.
These positions require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.
The California Water Commission serves in an advisory capacity to the Director of the Department of Water Resources and was originally established to build and review operations of the State Water Project. The Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010, approved by the legislature and signed by the Governor in 2009, vests the commission with responsibility over $3 billion in funding for statewide water system operational improvement. The commission is composed of nine members, two of which must be representatives from the environmental community.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today also announced the following appointments to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy:
Charlton “Chuck” Bonham, 41, of Albany, has worked for Trout Unlimited as California director and senior attorney since 2004 and, previously, was director of the organization’s California Water Project and staff attorney from 2000 to 2004. From 1994 to 1997, he was an instructor for Nantahala Outdoor Center and, from 1991 to 1993, was a small business development agent in Senegal, West Africa for the U.S. Peace Corps. Bonham is a member of the Pacific Forest Legacy Stewardship Council Board and the Foundation for Youth Investment. Bonham is a Democrat.
Michael Eaton, 58, of Sacramento, has been executive director of the Resources Legacy Fund since 2007. From 1995 to 2007, he was senior project director at The Nature Conservancy and, from 1983 to 1995, was an independent environmental consultant. Prior to that, Eaton served as assistant secretary at the Resources Agency from 1981 to 1983 and as energy advisor in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research from 1980 to 1981. From 1975 to 1980, he was legislative assistant for the Sierra Club. Eaton is chair of the Soil Born Farms Board of Directors and advisor to the California Institute for Public Affairs. Eaton is registered decline-to-state.
These positions require Senate confirmation and there is no salary.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy was established as part of the comprehensive water package signed by the Governor in 2009. As established in the law, this new conservancy is the primary state agency for implementing ecosystem restoration and promoting economic vitality in the Delta.
In addition to the Governor’s appointees, the Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly also make appointments to the conservancy. Additional members include representatives from Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, and Yolo counties, the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, and the Director of Finance.
