by Dan Bacher 

As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger road a high-speed rail train with high ranking Japanese officials on September 14 during his whirlwind tour of Asia, Schwarzenegger administration officials continued to railroad Delta advocates by excluding them from secret meetings planning the fate of the California Delta. 

Closed-door meetings now taking place among top water agency officials, regulatory agencies and three corporate environmental groups threaten every bit of progress made in the past year to curtail pumping from the California Delta and give imperiled fish populations a chance to recover. 

State Resources Secretary Lester Snow is co-leading these secret sessions to negotiate an agreement regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) before Governor Schwarzenegger leaves office, as disclosed in Mike Taugher’s article in the Contra Costa Times on September 7 (http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_16014714). 

“Supporters say the closed-door talks, which began in late August without notice to committee members, are needed to try to break a logjam,” according to Taugher. “Critics see another example of a long practice of secretly settling high-stakes California water issues in ways that end up favoring powerful water contractors while harming the Delta.” 

Delta advocates view the BDCP as a thinly veiled plan to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness giants including Stewart Resnick, the owner of the 120,000-acre Paramount Farms in Kern County, and southern California water agencies. They fear that the canal would likely lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley salmon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species devastated by massive water exports in recent years. 

“The Governor really wants that canal, and he prefers to do water policy closeted with a few of his best friends,” explained Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. 

Of course, Snow, Schwarzenegger and their collaborators have made sure that recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Tribal members, conservationists, environmental justice communities, Delta farmers and Delta residents, the people most impacted by Delta water decisions, are completely excluded from these back door sessions. 

“No one from the Delta is part of these meetings,” Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said. “Restore the Delta has learned that Snow is now taking a ‘non-public’ proposal to the group. It includes a proposal for Delta operations and governance that allows flexibility but requires only a ‘best effort’ from agencies to avoid additional water impacts.” 

Barrigan-Parilla also said the proposal also allows the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation to veto any changes to the range of operations. 

“This could effectively prevent adaptive management intended to protect fish,” Barrigan-Parrilla said. “In fact, it appears that the proposal would allow the feds to gut the biological opinions.” 

Schwarzenegger has continually attacked the federal biological opinions designed to stop the extinction of Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River winter run and spring run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales (orcas) while the Governor’s Office continually issues press releases touting Schwarzenegger as the “Green Governor.” 

The proposal would require only token funding from water users for habitat restoration. It also would exclude an analysis of the Water Board’s new flow criteria. 

This penchant for secrecy by the Governor at the same time that he hypocritically calls for greater “transparency” in government is the hallmark of the Schwarzenegger administration, the worst in California history for fish and the environment. This is the same Governor that gave the keynote address on an “undisclosed topic” before global oligarchs at the highly secretive Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio on July 30 of this year. 

Have you had enough of the secrecy by the Schwarzenegger administration and its collaborators? Call the Resources Agency at (916) 653-5656 today and tell Lester Snow to stop this closed-door negotiating process and bring to the table all affected parties. 

Or email Snow directly at secretary [at] resources.ca.gov and let him know what you think of him presiding over this destruction of the state’s public trust resources!

by Dan Bacher

As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger road a high-speed rail train today with high ranking Japanese officials during his whirlwind tour of Asia, Schwarzenegger administration officials continued to railroad Delta advocates by excluding them from secret meetings planning the fate of the California Delta.

Closed-door meetings now taking place among top water agency officials, regulatory agencies and three “Gang Green” corporate environmental groups threaten every bit of progress made in the past year to curtail pumping from the California Delta and give imperiled fish populations a chance to recover. 

State Resources Secretary Lester Snow is co-leading these secret sessions to negotiate an agreement regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) before Governor Schwarzenegger leaves office, as disclosed in Mike Taugher’s article in the Contra Costa on September 7 (www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_16014714).

“Supporters say the closed-door talks, which began in late August without notice to committee members, are needed to try to break a logjam,” according to Taugher. “Critics see another example of a long practice of secretly settling high-stakes California water issues in ways that end up favoring powerful water contractors while harming the Delta.”

Delta advocates view the BDCP as a thinly veiled plan to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate water exports from the Delta to southern corporate agribusness and southern California. They fear that the canal would likely lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley salmon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species devastated by massive water exports in recent years.

“The Governor really wants that canal, and he prefers to do water policy closeted with a few of his best friends,” explained Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.

Of course, Snow, Schwarznegger and their collaborators have made sure that recreational anglers commercial fishermen, Tribal members, environmentalists, justice communities, Delta farmers and Delta residents, the people most impacted by Delta water decisions, are completely excluded from these back door sessions.

“No one from the Delta is part of these meetings,” Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, said. “Restore the Delta has learned that Snow is now taking a ‘non-public’ proposal to the group. It includes a proposal for Delta operations and governance that allows flexibility but requires only a ‘best effort’ from agencies to avoid additional water impacts.”

Barrigan-Parilla also said the proposal also allows DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation to veto any changes to the range of operations. 

“This could effectively prevent adaptive management intended to protect fish,” Barrigan-Parrilla. “In fact, it appears that the proposal would allow the feds to gut the biological opinions.”

Schwarzenegger has continually attacked the federal biological opinions designed to stop the extinction of Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River winter run and spring run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales (orcas) while the Governor’s Office continually issues press releases touting Schwarzenegger as the “Green Governor.”

The proposal would require only token funding from water users for habitat restoration. It also would exclude an analysis of the Water Board’s new flow criteria.

This penchant for secrecy by the Governor at the same time that he hypocritically calls for greater “transparency” in government is the hallmark of the Schwarzenegger adminstration, the worst in Califronia history for fish and the environment. This is the same Governor that gave the keynote address on an “undisclosed topic” before global oligarchs at the highly secretive Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio on July 30 of this year  (http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/arnold-bohemian-grove-schwarzenegger-calls-transparent-government-484/.)

Have you had enough of the secrecy by the Schwarzenegger administration and its collaborators? Call the Resources Agency at (916) 653-5656 Today and tell Lester Snow to stop this closed-door negotiating process and bring to the table all affected parties.

Or email Snow directly at secretary@resources.ca.gov and let him know what you think of him presiding over this destruction of the state’s public trust resources!

by Dan Bacher 

In spite of the enormous risk that it would pose to human health and imperiled wild salmon populations, the Obama administration is moving forward on its approval of the AquaBounty corporation’s genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon for human consumption. 

Food & Water Watch and a coalition of consumer, environmental, fishing and animal welfare groups on September 9 sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisting that it discontinue its controversial and largely secretive approval process for AquaBounty GE salmon. 

“The FDA has purposefully kept critical information from the public surrounding what could soon become the first genetically engineered food animal to hit the market,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Consumers have a right to know that the FDA lacks the means to assess this fish as a genetically engineered animal intended for human consumption. If this product was approved, the resulting consumer health impact could be disastrous.” 

Hunter also said consumers should be aware that the FDA has “purposefully scheduled” public hearings to limit public participation, beginning them on a Sunday in a remote location (Rockville, Md.) and creating a complicated registration process for the largely unpublicized events. 

In addition, the agency, which has been studying this bizarre “franken-salmon” for nearly a decade, released an insufficient amount of information on the matter barely two weeks before the public hearings are set to begin on September 19, according to Hunter. Even worse, the data released was of studies performed by AquaBounty, the company with a vested interest in selling its own product! 

“We ask that the agency reject AquaBounty’s application for genetically engineered salmon,” said Hunter. “In addition, we demand that any hearings on the topic be held in a central location and that the public have adequate time to review the very real human health, animal health, and ecological risks this product would generate.” 

AquaBounty first applied for approval of the GE fish in 2001, but the Bush Administration delayed its approval until it left office. “Ironically, the Obama Administration, who came to office promising a more environmentally sound and transparent process, is using the Bush Administration-developed framework for the approval of genetically engineered animals,” according to the Center for Food Safety. “This process uses the fiction that the genetically engineered salmon is, in effect, an animal ‘drug.’” 

On August 27, a coalition of 31 consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations and food retailers, submitted a joint statement criticizing an FDA announcement that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption. 

AquaBounty Technologies developed the GE Atlantic salmon under consideration by artificially combining growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon, chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), with DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout (Zoarces americanus). 

“This modification causes continuous production of growth-hormone year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows to full size at twice the normal rate of non-GE farmed salmon,” according to the groups. “This could allow factory fish farms to crowd fish and still get high production rates despite the stressful conditions found there.” 

Every year millions of Atlantic salmon, grown now in Europe, Maine, British Columbia and Chile, escape from open-water net pens, outcompeting wild populations for resources and straining ecosystems. “We believe any approval of GE salmon would represent a serious threat to the survival of native salmon populations, many of which have already suffered severe declines related to salmon farms and other man-made impacts,” said Marianne Cufone, director of Food & Water Watch’s fish program. 

The groups believe that if the FDA opens this door, GE fish will likely join the millions of salmon that currently escape from open ocean pens operated by aquaculture coporations every year. Fish farms always have a certain amount of fish escape, through human error, weather, and attacks by sea lions and other predators that damage the pens. 

On the average, 15 percent of farmed fish escape into the wild. For example, 170,000 one-year-old salmon escaped from aquaculture facilities in in Machias Bay, Maine, during a winter storm in December 2000, according to an editorial in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (http://www.vjel.org/editorials/ED10031.html). Approval of GE salmon could be the last blow to wild salmon stocks and in turn the thousands of men and women who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. 

Both Pacific and Atlantic Coast salmon populations are imperiled now by loss of habitat, pollution, water diversions and dams. Commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon was closed in 2008 and 2009 in California and southern Oregon ocean waters, due to the collapse of Central Valley salmon stocks spurred by record water exports from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. 

“Approving genetically engineered salmon is a sharp contradiction to the agreements the United States has signed at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) where transgenic salmonids are considered a serious threat to wild salmon,” said Boyce Thorne Miller, Science and Policy Coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and accredited observer at the NASCO, an international organization, established by an inter-governmental Convention in 1984 (http://www.nasco.int/). The organization’s objective is to “conserve, restore, enhance and rationally manage Atlantic salmon through international cooperation taking account of the best available scientific information.” 

Escaped GE salmon can pose an additional threat – genetic pollution resulting from what scientists call the “Trojan gene” effect.” Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) noted that a release of just sixty GE salmon into a wild population of 60,000 would lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 generations. 

AquaBounty officials have claimed that they will only raise their fish in land-based facilities. However, the groups said most salmon farmers in the real world ply their trade in low-lying coastal areas and competing corporations will no doubt race to produce GE fish in crowded open ocean facilities already. 

“We all know there is a great appetite for salmon, but the solution is not to ‘farm’ genetically engineered versions to put more on our dinner tables; the solution is to work to bring our wild salmon populations back,” said Jonathan Rosenfield, PhD, a Conservation Biologist and President of the SalmonAID Foundation, a 28-member coalition of commercial, tribal, and sportfishing interests, conservation organizations and chefs (http://www.salmonaid.org). “The approval of these transgenic fish will only exacerbate the problems facing our wild fisheries.” 

The Obama administration’s campaign to approve the first genetically engineered fish for human consumption is no surprise, when you consider the influence that Monsanto, AquaBounty and other bio-tech corporations have over the FDA. Obama appointed Michael R. Taylor, J.D., as Deputy Commissioner for Foods under the FDA in January. Taylor is a former top executive, lawyer and lobbyist with biotech giant Monsanto. 

“During his former stint in the FDA during the Clinton administration, Taylor helped write the rules to allow BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) into the American food system and our children’s milk,” according to WeAreGreen.tv ( http://www.wearegreen.tv/2010/01/former-monsanto-exec-appointed-to-the-head-of-the-f-d-a/). 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack also has a reputation as a shill for agribusiness biotech giants including Monsanto, who support the proliferation of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn. 

The Drive to Privatize the Public Trust 

The push by the FDA to approve genetically engineered salmon occurs in the larger context of the Obama and Schwarzenegger administration’s drive to privatize public trust resources. 

Jane Lubchenko, the Under Secretary for Ocean and Atmosphere under the Obama Administration and the former Vice Chair of the Board of Environmental Defense, is promoting a “catch shares” policy in U.S. coastal waters that privatizes ocean fish resources and concentrates fisheries into fewer, wealthier hands. Food and Water Watch, fishing organizations and grassroots environmental groups are opposing the “catch shares” program. 

“A catch share, also known as an individual fishing quota, is a transferable voucher that gives individuals or businesses the right to a fixed percentage of the total authorized catch of a particular species,” according to Food and Watch Watch. “Fishery management systems based on catch shares turn a public resource into private property and have lead to socioeconomic and environmental problems. Contrary to arguments by catch share proponents – namely large commercial fishing interests – this management system has exacerbated unsustainable fishing practices.” 

In a similar vein, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has privatized ocean management in California waters under his widely-contested Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. Since 2004, a private corporation, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, has funded this initiative to create and implement so-called “marine protected areas” In California ocean waters. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversee the initiative are dominated by oil industry, real estate, marine development and other private interests that have conflicts of interests in the outcome of the process. 

These “marine protected areas” do nothing to protect the ocean from oil drilling, oil spills, water pollution, wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. Tribal members, fishermen and environmentalists point out that these “marine protected areas” would do nothing to prevent a disaster like the Deep Water Horizon or Exxon Valdez oil spills while they serve to greenwash the abysmal environmental legacy of Governor Schwarzenegger. 

In fact, opposition to the MLPA on the North Coast has mushroomed into the largest political movement since the Redwood Summer of 1990. Over 300 members of 50 Indian Tribes, fishermen, environmentalists and immigrant seafood industry workers peacefully took over an MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21 to protest the violation of tribal gathering and fishing rights and corporate greenwashing that has taken place during Schwarzenegger’s fast-track drive to create fake “marine protected areas.” 

Everybody who cares about our oceans and fisheries should oppose the drive to privatize, whether it is the Obama administration’s push to approve genetically engineered salmon and force the fishing industry to adopt catch shares or the Schwarzenegger regime’s fast-track MLPA process. 

Act Now to Stop the Approval of GE Salmon! 

For more information and to send an email opposing the approval of genetically engineered salmon, go to http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org. orhttp://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4693 

Please also visit the Center for Food Safety to send a letter to the FDA urging them to oppose the approval of AquaBounty’s GE salmon. 
Live site: https://secure3.convio.net/cfs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=325 

Also, please sign CREDO’s petition by going to http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/food_gmosalmon_fda/?r_by=11045-301340-RBoUXVx&rc=confemail

by Dan Bacher  

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Unconfirmed fish kill in West Delta now under investigation  

by Dan Bacher  

Jerry Neuburger of the California Fisheries Network (http://www.calfish.net) on September 8 received a series of alarming photos from “Bibi” showing a major fish kill at a canal in the West Delta region at the beginning of Labor Day weekend. 

While the kill was initially reported at or near the Chevron property in Pittsburg, it was quickly found that Chevron has no plant in the area with the closest facility in Martinez, according to Neuburger.  

“The person first reporting the kill has since contacted DFG and with the assistance of GoogleEarth, has pinpointed the reported location of the disaster,” said Neuburger. “DFG personnel are currently in the field, investigating to determine the cause of the incident.”  

The photos show hundreds of dead striped bass piled along the shore in scenes reminiscent of the Prospect Island Fish Kill in November 2007, when tens of thousands of stripers, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, black bass, carp and other species perished in the largest fish kill ever documented on the California Delta.  

In a post on Dan Blanton’s fly fishing bulletin board (http://www.danblanton.com/bulletin.php), “Blane” reported a major fish kill at his duck club in Suisun while fishing there. “A formerly open-to-the Bay larger club had just repaired its levee, and as they pumped the several-hundred acres back into the Bay, all the stripers from three years of access were concentrated in the deepwater canals on the edges,” he stated.  

“Sadly, all the remaining fish will be dead in a couple of weeks as the water level drops—the otters and raccoons are already feasting, and the cormorants cannot choke down the fish due to their size,” “Blane” claimed. “I saw an area in one of the canals that had 100+ BIG striper carcasses after they got caught behind a tule island and could not find their way to the retreating waters.”  

At the same time, there is also a report of a leak in a pipeline that crosses underground in the area of the fish kill. In order to repair the leak, Chevron needed to access the pipeline with heavy equipment. Chevron is in the process of bringing in the equipment needed to perform some road construction which required the draining of some of the waterways, according to sources.  

Whether these two incidents are related or not remains yet to be seen.  

Both Jerry and I have contacted Randy Imai from the California Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response. Imai has contacted the game warden and the local DFG water quality biologist in that region.  

Imai will contact us about the location and extent of the fish kill as soon as he receives more information. Imai emphasized that it is not clear at this time whether the fish kill is on Chevron property as originally reported.  

If you have any information confirming or documenting a fish kill in this region, please contact me at danielbacher [at] fishsniffer.com, 916-685-2245, ext. 224, Jerry Neuburger at gneuburger [at] yahoo.comand, or Randy Imai at 916-324-0000.  

Imai also encouraged people to report factual information regarding poachers and polluters to CalTIP (Californians Turn InPoachers and Polluters). CalTIP is a confidential secret witness program that encourages Californians an opportunity to help protect the state’s fish and wildlife resources. The toll free telephone number operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to give your name.  

CalTIP can be reached at 1-888-334-2258.

The reported fish kill takes place at a time when Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, young striped bass and other species have declined to record low population levels, due to massive water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California and declining water quality.

by Dan Bacher

The California and the World Ocean Conference (CWO) 2010, organized by the California Ocean Protection Council, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency, started on September 7 and will run through September 10 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.

The event began Tuesday as union picketers surrounded the entrance and banged pots and pans in protest of the state agencies and their corporate allies for sponsoring the conference at the hotel, known for its anti-union policies.

The event, entitled “Our Changing Ocean: A Vision for the 21st Century,” is a festival of corporate greenwashing, injustice and exclusion. Schwarzenegger is using the event to greenwash his abysmal ocean policies, led by his widely-criticized Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, seaweed harvesters and environmentalists have criticized his initiative, funded privately by the Shadowy Resources Legacy Foundation, for eviscerating the landmark law while violating numerous state, federal and international laws. The initiative has completely taken oil drilling, water pollution, aquaculture, wave energy projects, habitat destruction and all uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table.

“I am committed to protecting the world’s oceans and I know that by working together will make a difference – we already have,” said Schwarzenegger, the same Governor who has presided over the collapse of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, striped bass, green sturgeon and other species, in his statement in the conference show program. “We are establishing a network of marine protected areas, unlocking the secrets of the deep, working with West Coast Governors and the Premier of British Columbia to improve the health of the coast and seeking to improve the economic and environmental vitality in the Pacific Rim through the Pacific 2020 Challenge.”

Schwarzenegger was originally scheduled to open Wednesday’s plenary with a keynote address, along with John Hanke, the Vice President of Google Earth and Google Maps, and President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati. Schwarzenegger cancelled out at the last minute, but Hanke and Tong both gave presentations.

Then on Thursday from 7 to 11 p.m., Congressman Sam Far and Jane Lubchenko, the Under Secretary for Ocean and Atmosphere under the Obama Administration, will talk about “Protecting Our Ocean: A National Perspective.” Lubchencko, the former Vice Chair of the Board of Environmental Defense, is pushing a “catch shares” policy that privatizes ocean fish resources and concentrates fisheries into fewer, more wealthy hands.

Food and Water Watch, commercial fishing organizations and grassroots environmental groups are opposing the “catch shares” program. Marie Logan of Food and Watch, who is attending the conference, noted that there is a process of quota allocation (catch shares) being implemented to West Coast groundfish fisheries in the coming months and years.

The luncheon and closing event on Friday is entitled (you can’t make this stuff up!) “Investing in Our Ocean’s Future.” The speakers listed are three of biggest names in ocean corporate greenwashing and privatization: David Rockefeller, President and Founding Member, Sailors for the Sea; Michael Sutton, Center for the Future of the Ocean, Monterey Bay Aquarium; and Steve McCormick, President and Trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The conference program consists of four plenary sessions, 64 concurrent sessions, and other events with hundreds of participants. In an apparent effort to make sure that grassroots fishermen, Tribal members, seaweed harvesters, environmentalists and biologists are kept out of the event, the registration is an amazingly high $375, while the basic registration is $200.

The program organizers also went out of their way to make sure that Tribal and fishing community members were excluded from or marginalized on the panels. There are no scientists or other representatives from California Indian Tribes that I could find on any of the panels, although Scott Williams, a lawyer for the Klamath Basin Tribes, is scheduled for the Klamath River Panel.

With the exception of Melvin de la Motte of the Central Coast Fisheries Conservation Coalition, I couldn’t find any recreational fishermen invited to speak on the panels either. Likewise, only three commercial fishing representatives, including Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, were scheduled for panel presentations.

The “Fostering Effective Stakeholder Participation in the MLPA” panel, set for Thursday from 8 am to 9:45 am, is a prime example of how this conference is a festival of injustice, exclusion and greenwashing.

The moderator of this panel is Melissa Miller-Henson, Program Manager for the MLPA Initiative. The panel members are Bob Breen, Member of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council; Calla Allison, Staff Director for the Orange County Marine Protected Area Council; Eugenia Laychahk, Principal of EJL & Associates; Sara Sikich, Coastal Resources Director of Heal the Bay; Matt Winslow, a student at Mendocino County High School; and Kelly Sayce, Outreach and Eduction Coordinator for the California MLPA.

There are no Tribal, fishing or grassroots environmental stakeholders scheduled to give their perspectives on fostering “effective stakeholder participation” in the MLPA process on this panel. Why were Tribes, recreational anglers and grassroots environmentalists completely excluded from this panel?

Is it because they might portray a view of “stakeholder participation” that are odds with the Schwarzenegger administration and well-funded corporate environmental NGOs?

Of course, no Schwarzenegger administration oceans event is complete without a speech from Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association. Reheis-Boyd will speak on a luncheon panel on Thursday, September 9 about “The Gulf Oil Spill: Lessons Regarding Prevention and Response.”

Reheis-Boyd was the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast and now sits on the task force for the North Coast. In recent months, she has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California Coast. What type of marine guardian is this?

In fact, what type of oceans conference is this, where the people most impacted by state and federal ocean policies are marginalized and excluded?

“This conference was done as decisions are always made by state agencies – without input from the local communities, especially from Tribes,” said Georgiana Myers, Yurok Tribal member and Coastal Justice Coalition organizer. “They come into our territory and homeland to impose laws, rules and regulations that most of the time have a negative impact on us.”

“The event organizers made no attempt to get any substantial representation from the commercial or recreational fishing industry, with the exception of three panels,” said Zeke Grader, who spoke on the aquaculture and offshore energy panels. “Lots of good people in the industry were ignored.”

“For those who struggle to make ends meet in the fishing industry, the Governor’s ocean policies appear to be a kind of class warfare launched by the California elite against us,” summed up Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

Is this conference in reality a networking session for corporate leaders like David Rockefeller, Jr., John Hanke and Catherine Reheis-Boyd, corporate environmental “Gang Green” representatives, foundation heads and state and federal agency officials to discuss, promote and greenwash their plans to privatize ocean management and public trust resources?

The Program Guide for the California and the World Ocean ‘10 (CWO ‘10) conference is available online athttp://www.cce.csus.edu/cwo.

State Water Board Adopts Pollution Limits for the Klamath Basin 

by Dan Bacher 

The State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento on September 7 approved water pollution limits for the Klamath River, a system regularly plagued with fish kills, toxic algae blooms and poor water quality in recent years. 

The board adopted TMDLs (total maximum daily loads), essentially pollution limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and activities affecting water temperatures and dissolved oxygen, according to Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator for the Karuk Tribe. They also ban dredge mining from areas considered to be “thermal refugial zones,” cold spots in the river at creek mouths that fish use during summer months. 

The TMDLs also address the blooms of toxic blue-green algae that take place every summer behind PacifiCorp dams and mandate that PacifiCorp reservoirs cannot impact water temperature. “Currently the dams have a dramatic effect on water temperature and salmon and steelhead migration,” said Tucker. 

“The Board’s decision is significant, since the TMDLs will limit new pollution sources from being developed and force clean up of current sources,” said Tucker. “If the pending Klamath Dam Removal Settlement fails to be implemented, the TMDLs will force additional regulations on the operation of the dams should PacifiCorp choose to pursue a new operational license for the dams.” 

The TMDLs were developed over the course of several years by the Northcoast Regional Water Quality Control Board and were subjected to third party scientific reviews as well as public reviews and comments. A broad coalition of Klamath Basin Indian Tribes, fishing groups and conservation organizations supported the adoption of these pollution limits, while PacifiCorp, the subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and Siskiyou County opposed them. 

The TMDLs are the result of litigation filed in 1994 by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) and others charging that The Clean Water Act obligated the state to set pollution limits for a host of northern California salmon streams. Similar TMDL processes have been completed for the Trinity, Scott, Shasta, Salmon and other rivers. 

PacifiCorp requested that the TMDL be sent back to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board, claiming that the company would like to see “good science, not quick science” as imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) 

”Through the settlement process Pacificorp is collaboratively working with basin stakeholders to implement key provisions of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement that will improve water quality prior to potential removal of the dams, if that is the ultimate decision of the Secretary of the Interior, and that will improve water quality if the dams are not removed,” said Art Sasse, spokesman for PacifiCorp. 

However, Glen Spain, Northwest Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), said this would have simply have meant the U.S. EPA would have stepped in and approved the TMDLs – there is a December 31, 2010 court-ordered deadline. “This would have meant the parties would have lost a lot of the flexibility provided for under a state approved TMDL and implementation plan,” noted Spain. 

While Spain, Tucker and other supporters praised the board’s decision, Sasse said PacifiCorp continues to have “strong disagreements about the feasibility and attainability of the TMDL and the integrity of the underlying technical analysis.” 

“At its core, this is about how to best protect customers and the community,” said Sasse. “PacifiCorp and other stakeholders are working diligently to implement the KHSA and realize the regulatory certainty provided by the settlement agreement. But we also have a legal responsibility to our customers to continue down the relicensing path, until and only if dam removal becomes certain.” 

Sasse added, “PacifiCorp will vigorously engage in ongoing regulatory processes such as the TMDL to ensure a fair and accurate assignment of responsibilities and costs to the Project, which ultimately must be borne by PacifiCorps customers.” 

This was the final TMDL to be approved for California’s North Coast coming out of the 1995 PCFFA lawsuit (PCFFA v. Marcus) and the 1997 settlement. 

“It’s been a long time coming and there’s still a lot of work to do (along with preventing backsliding by the parties), but it is a bit of good news,” said Spain. “It was the second piece of good news delivered by the Board in the past couple of months – the first was their unanimous approval of their flow criteria for the Bay-Delta estuary ecosystem.” 

Representatives from the PCFFA, Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, Klamath Riverkeeper, the Klamath Forest Alliance and the Sierra Club testified at the meeting in support of the TMDLs. 

“The staff of the North Coast board deserves a lot of credit for the incredible amount of work they did and their courage to stand up to PacifiCorp and others who didn’t want to see TMDLs, or strong ones anyway, in place,” stated Spain. 

Poor water quality and warm water temperatures have plagued the Klamath River for decades. Besides the annual blooms of toxic algae at the PacifiCorp reservoirs, die offs of juvenile salmon and steelhead fish due to disease spurred by warm water temperatures have become a regular occurence in the spring and summer months. In September 2002, over 68,000 adult salmon perished due to an outbreak of disease in low, warm water conditions on the lower Klamath. 

For more information, contact Glen Spain of PCFFA, 541-689-2000, or S. Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator, Karuk Tribe, cell: 916-207-8294, home office: 707-839-1982, http://www.karuk.us.

by Dan Bacher  

COUNTY OF MARIN FAILS TO PROTECT CRITICAL HABITAT FOR ENDANGERED COHO SALMON

For Immediate Release: September 7, 2010

For more information, please contact:
-Paola Bouley, SPAWN Conservation Director, 415.663.8590 ext 111, Paola@Tirn.Net
-Dr. Peter Moyle, Professor of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at U.C. Davis and Associate Director for the Center for Watershed Sciences, Phone: (530) 752-6355, Email: pbmoyle@ucdavis.edu

Olema, CA- Leading aquatic scientists are publicly calling on Marin County Supervisors, for the 2nd time in 3 years, to take immediate action to protect critical habitat for the Bay Area’s last-remaining wild run of endangered coho salmon habitat, and end their delay tactics.

The letter to Marin’s Supervisors signed by over 150 scientists, including two of the world’s most prominent salmon and aquatic scientists, Dr. Peter Moyle, Professor of Fisheries Biology at U.C. Davis, and California Academy of Sciences Senior Scientist and Chair of Aquatic Biology, Dr. John Mc Cosker, calls for immediate enforcement of existing rules and the implementation of new protective measures to support salmon recovery. For the letter and more background info see http://spawnusa.org/pages/page-324.

The County of Marin has continued delaying implementation of necessary protective measures for important spawning and nursery habitat areas in headwater reaches of the Lagunitas Creek Watershed in West Marin County, despite the species being on the verge of extinction. Earlier this year the Federal government declared an “extinction crisis” for Central California coho salmon and called for urgent watershed protections.

Dr. Peter Moyle, Professor of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at U.C. Davis and Associate Director for the Center for Watershed Sciences, stated “The lack of habitat protections in the headwaters of the Lagunitas Watershed for this wild run of salmon could impact the recovery status of extirpated populations along the entire central California coast. We are asking that the County stop stalling and implement strong, enforceable habitat protections for endangered Lagunitas coho.” Dr. Moyle is one of the lead authors of the recent report called “SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis” which determined that coho salmon are the most endangered salmon species in California and face sure extinction if current habitat degradation trends persist. Lagunitas coho salmon, despite their low numbers, are currently represent the largest-remaining wild run of this species along the entire Central California coast

Among the key recommendations supported in the scientist letter is the thorough and full enforcement of all existing habitat protection laws and regulations and the enactment of a native riparian forest management ordinance that protects the core streamside habitat salmon rely on for survival. Currently, Marin County allows landowners along streams to cut down up to 5 trees along streams every year without any permits, mitigations or accountability. Scientists are also calling on Marin to close loopholes in the Stream Conservation Area ordinance for new construction directly along streams resulting in the net loss of critical riparian habitat. The County continues to publicly acknowledge that they are aware regulations are inadequate but have failed to act for over 3 years.

“What little, if any, progress the county is currently making is occurring at such a glacial pace that the fish are headed for extinction, not recovery, said Paola Bouley, SPAWN’s Conservation Director. She added, “For the past 3 years the County has promised reforms of habitat protections they fully know are inadequate, yet to date and after countless meetings and delays, we have yet to see any protections manifest for these public trust resources.”

Deborah Sivas, Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law and Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic Stanford Law School, concluded “Wild populations of coho are hanging on by a thread across California, while the County allows ongoing destruction of habitat and continues to approve developments that compromise the species’s future in the most important watershed we have left.” She continued, “The coho salmon is an indicator species, the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Without meaningful regulations to protect habitat and balance restoration efforts, and without the political will to enforce such protections, we will lose this treasured California species and the ecosystem which it defines.”

For more background information visit http://spawnusa.org/pages/page-324

by Dan Bacher 

In the most absurd episode yet in the bad action flick that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has starred in since being elected Governor in 2003, the “Fish Terminator” on Saturday morning spouted off about the need for “transparent” government in his weekly radio address. 

“Ever since I became Governor, I have pushed to make California government more transparent,” Schwarzenegger claimed. “Now, I don’t have to tell you that this is a time of deep recession, all around the world.” 

“It is more critical than ever that government be held accountable for every dollar it spends, that it live within its means, and that it show total transparency at all levels: at the local level, the state level and the federal level,” said Schwarzenegger. 

This is coming from the guy who has demonstrated more of a penchant for secrecy than any other Governor in California history. This is coming from the corporate-controlled political hack that was a keynote speaker on July 30, 2010 at the highly secretive Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio on the Russian River (http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100728/ARTICLES/100729459). 

The Bohemian Grove is an exclusive, men’s only club where the heads of global corporations, select politicians, bankers and the elite members of the ruling class from throughout the globe “relax” and network to devise their schemes to pillage the world’s resources, launch wars and control the population while making the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

On the first night of the annual encampment, the members of the club perform a bizarre ritual called the “Cremation of Care.” “This ceremony involves the poling across a lake of a small boat containing an effigy of Care (called ‘Dull Care’). Dark, hooded figures receive from the ferryman the effigy which is placed on an altar, and, at the end of the ceremony, set on fire,” according to wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremation_of_Care). “This ‘cremation’ symbolizes that members are banishing the ‘dull cares’ of conscience.” 

Many believe that the elite, meeting at Bohemian Grove, picked Schwarzenegger to run for Governor in order to plunder the California economy and resources through increased privatization of public trust resources to benefit the super-rich. 

On July 21, 2003, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, “From what we’ve heard, the Republican hierarchy — especially those close to former Gov. Pete Wilson — would favor Schwarzenegger. At least that’s the word that came out of the Bohemian Grove this past weekend, where a number of state and national GOPers, including presidential adviser Karl Rove, happened to have gathered at a club getaway.” 

However, we’ll never know exactly what transpired in Schwarzenegger’s annual appearances at the Grove because all proceedings, events and speeches are kept secret, even though the lives of billions of people throughout the world are greatly impacted what is discussed behind closed doors at the annual event. 

Schwarzenegger’s speech on “transparent” government then devolved into an attack on the Senate for refusing to pass a bill that would require them to post their salaries and expenditures online, followed by a shameless rant praising all of his alleged initiatives for “transparency” in Government. 

“I opened my own calendar to the public,” Schwarzenegger gushed. “No other sitting Governor has ever done that.” 

Schwarzenegger sure didn’t open his calendar to the public on July 30, when he spoke along with Rupert Murdoch, media magnate and owner of Fox News, to the gathered elite at the Bohemian Grove! In fact, he didn’t even disclose what topic he was speaking about. 

According to Mary Moore, an organizer of yearly protests in front of the Grove’s gates, Schwarzenegger’s appearance was described as follows on the Grove’s program: “Friday, July 30: Topic undisclosed: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger” ( http://dailycensored.com/2010/08/06/speakers-at-the-2010-bohemian-grove-include-rupert-murdoch-david-gergen-and-arnold-schwarzenegger/). 

My experience with covering water and environmental politics under Schwarzenegger administration is the exact opposite of his claims that he is the “Transparent Governor.” 

In contrast with the Governor’s claims of “transparency” in government, Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) officials went out of their way to exclude the input of California Indian Tribes, anglers and environmentalist justice communities, the groups most impacted by the Governor’s plan for a peripheral canal and new dams, from these rigged fiascos. Only after an action alert went out complaining about the lack of tribal and recreational fishing representation was one lone tribal representative and one lone recreational fishing representative appointed to Delta Vision Stakeholders Group. 

Likewise, the Governor, the Legislative leaders, Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water Agency and corporate environmental NGOs met in secret, back door negotiations last year to craft the water policy/water bond package that creates a clear path to a peripheral canal and new, unneeded dams. The Governor and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg did everything they could to ram this package through the Capitol without input from California Indian Tribes, fishermen, Delta farmers and residents, and environmental justice communities. 

Fortunately, the massive opposition by the public to the water bond forced the Governor to go to the Legislature and get the bond delayed until November 2012. However, the Governor is still pushing his plans to build the canal and new dams through the BDCP process and the Delta Stewardship Council created by last year’s legislation. 

Another process that the Governor and his collaborators claim is “open, inclusive and transparent,” the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, is anything but. It was only after outrage by First Amendment advocates and the Newspapers Publishers Association over the arrest of David Gurney at an MLPA “working session” in April that MLPA Executive Director Ken Wiseman was forced to allow the sessions to be photographed and filmed, as is required by the Bagley-Keene Public Meetings Act. 

The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a shadowy organization that is totally unaccountable to the public, has funded this illegitimate process since Schwarzenegger launched the MLPA Initiative in 2004. Schwarzenegger has appointed oil industry, real estate, marina development and other private operatives with conflicts of interest to the MLPA’s Blue Ribbon Task Forces that choose the marine reserve proposals that are submitted for approval by the Fish and Game Commission. 

If the MLPA is such an “open, transparent and inclusive” process, why did 300 Tribal members, fishermen, immigrant workers and environmentalists feel so left out of the process that they had to organize a march and direct action to take over a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21 so their voices would be finally heard? 

Schwarzenegger’s regular appearances at the Bohemian Grove and his pushing of rigged processes including the Delta Vision, BDCP, MLPA and the water policy/water bond fiascos show that his call for “transparency” in government is a hypocritical lie. His claim that he is the “Transparent Governor” rings just as hollow as his claim that he is the “Green Governor” when he has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other California Delta fish populations. 

Schwarzenegger’s 2-minute, 52-second radio address is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fb0yv_5rS8.