danbacher The announcement of the closure of the Delta Cross Channel gates came on the same day that the state and federal government water projects reached two records – a record collection of 9 million Sacramento splittail, a native minnow, at the pumps and a record year for water exports from the California Delta to agribusiness and southern California.
Aerial photo of Delta Cross Channel Gates by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
delta-cross-channel-300×2…
by Dan Bacher
(September 30) The Bureau of Reclamation today issued a statement announcing that it will close the Delta Cross Channel Gates for a period of up to 10 days from Tuesday, October 4 through Friday, October 14, 2011.
“The closure is an experimental research action intended to support the fishery resources in the lower Mokelumne River for Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon migrating upstream to spawn and to help to reduce fish straying into other river systems,” according to Peter Lucero, spokesman for the Mid-Pacific Region of the Bureau in Sacramento.
Lucero said the Delta Cross Channel Gates (DCCG) is a controlled diversion channel on the Sacramento River about 30 miles south of Sacramento that diverts water from the river into a branch of the Mokelumne River. When the gates are open, fresh water is drawn from the Sacramento River into the interior of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta through Snodgrass Slough and the Mokelumne River.
The decision by the Bureau to open the gates for 10 days is a big victory by The Golden Gate Salmon Association, Water for Fish and conservation groups working to restore Central Valley chinook salmon populations.
“During this closure, the salmon will be able to find their way to the main stem Mokelumne River,” said Dick Pool, Secretary Treasurer of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) and Administrator of Water for Fish. “The river and hatchery will almost assuredly reach capacity.”
Pool said this closure will result in six million fall run salmon smolts being able to migrate from the hatchery to the ocean, as well as between 2,000 and 4,000 adult salmon spawning naturally in the river. For more information, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/30/18691847.php.
Reclamation advised boaters to continue to check the status of the gates to avoid problems in moving through the DCCG.
Information on gate operations can be accessed on Reclamation’s Central Valley Operations website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/dcc_chng.txt or by calling 916-979-2194 or 916-979-2196. For additional information, please call the Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TYY 916-978-5608).
Record numbers of splittail ’salvaged’ as Delta exports reach all-time record
Meanwhile, two records were set on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta today as the water year ended.
First, 9 million Sacramento splittail were “salvaged” at the state and federal Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Second, the water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
“One of the reasons for the record-setting pumping is that much of the water this year went to refill the underground Kern Water Bank, largely controlled by billionaire farmer Stewart Resnick, and to the smaller Diamond Valley reservoir, which serves Southern California,” according to Mike Taugher in the Silicon Valley Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19014459). “Both reservoirs were drawn down during the three-year drought that lasted from 2007 through 2009.”
The fish “salvaged” at the “death pumps” of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. The salvage numbers reveal that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were “salvaged” between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also salvaged protected Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and green sturgeon, all listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, in the pumping facilities. The salvage numbers list 35,560 Central Valley chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon. In all, a total of over 11 milllion fish including 46 species were salvaged in the facilities since January 1.
While the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to “A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta,” prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
The record splittail “salvage” and record Delta pumping occur at a time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal to export more water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California. If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley salmon and steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish populations.
danbacher 
The Golden Gate Salmon Association, Water for Fish and conservation groups won a big victory for the future of Central Valley chinook salmon populations with Thursday’s announcement of a 10-day closure of the Delta cross channel gates that connect the Sacramento and Mokelumne rivers.
The Bureau will close the Cross Channel Gates on October 4, 2011 at approximately 10:00 am and will reopen the gates on October 14, 2011 at approximately 10:00 am for the Mokelumne River “salmon fish attraction experiment,” according to Thuy Washburn, Chief Operations Manager at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
“During this closure, the salmon will be able to find their way to the main stem Mokelumne River,” said Dick Pool, Secretary Treasurer of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) and Administrator of Water for Fish. “The river and hatchery will almost assuredly reach capacity.”
Pool said this closure will result in six million fall run salmon smolts being able to migrate from the hatchery to the ocean, as well as between 2,000 and 4,000 adult salmon spawning naturally in the river.
“The problem this time of year is that the flow in the Mokelumne River below Woodbridge Dam is 80 cfs, while the flow of Sacramento River water through the cross channel gates is 3,000 cfs,” said Pool. “Drawn by the larger Sacramento flows, many of the chinooks stray into the Sacramento River system.”
The fishermen have been asking for a 14-day closure for 3 years. “Last year the Bureau closed the gates for two days and the results were dramatic, with a big increase of salmon numbers moving into the mainstem Mokelumne,” said Pool.
When the gates were closed last year, EBMUD ran pulse flows from Camanche Dam to attract the fish upriver. The combination of the gate closure and pulse flows was largely responsible for the increased return to the hatchery last fall. The hatchery received 334 males, 391 females and 823 jacks and jills, for a total of 1548 salmon in the fall of 2010, compared to only 235 fish in 2009.
The Golden Gate Salmon Association thanked Don Glaser, Regional Director of the Mid Pacific Region of the Bureau, for arranging the closing of the gates in a September 29 letter.
“As you know, things have been pretty tough for the salmon and the salmon industry in the last three years, wrote Pool, GGSA Vice President Zeke Grader, Chairman Roger Thomas and President Victor Gonella. “We have not had much to cheer about. We look at this as a very bright spot in the long road to rebuilding the salmon runs. There is almost nothing anyone could have done in the short range that would put more salmon in the ocean than this action.”
The group also thanked Representative Grace Napolitano and Bureau Commissioner Mike Connor for their continuing interest and support of this project, as well as the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) for their leadership and the Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The National Marine Fisheries Service for their participation and support.
Environmental group leaders also celebrated the news of the 10-day closure. “This is great news for the Mokelumne salmon,” said Katherine Evatt, President of the Foothill Conservancy. “When these gates are not closed, a number of the Mokelumne salmon end up in the Sacramento and American rivers.”
“Reclamation recognizes the importance of this action and would like to acknowledge our appreciation of the Mokelumne River Partnership, a group who assisted Reclamation in making it happen,” said Sue Fry, Area Manager of Reclamation’s Bay Delta Office.
Central Valley fall run salmon populations, the driver of West Coast fisheries, collapsed in 2008 and 2009, spurred by record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, declining water quality and poor ocean conditions. The fall population has recovered this year, allowing the first normal recreational and commercial salmon fishing seasons on the California coast this year since 2007, along with a normal recreational salmon fishing season on the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers. However, imperiled winter and spring run salmon populations continue to decline.
A short new video from Bruce Tokars of Salmon Water Now shows the scene from a late summer afternoon at the Sausalito marina, with charter boats filled with happy, smiling fishermen coming home with limits of California king salmon.
Watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Jge-lPLRI&hd=1
Watch it on Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/29477079
For more information about the campaign to restore salmon, go to the Golden Gate Salmon Association website, http://www.goldengatesalmonassociation.com, or the Water for Fish website, http://www.water4fish.org.
danbacher While Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the statues to commemorate the scandal-ridden star in his body building prime, I recommend that he and the sculptor also design three statues to celebrate Schwarzenegger’s “green” legacy as governor of California.
Photo of Schwarzenegger posing beside his statue courtesy of http://muscle.iuhu.org.
Schwarzenegger statues should celebrate his ‘green’ legacy as governorby Dan Bacher
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has personally commissioned at least three statues of himself that depict the star of Terminator, Predator and other action movies in his “body-building prime.”
The scandal-ridden 64-year-old, who served as Governor from November 2003 to January 2, 2011, has ordered three bronze statues that will stand eight foot high and weigh 580 pounds each, according to the UK Telegraph on September 27.
The Telegraph reported one statue is destined for the recently-opened Schwarzenegger museum in his childhood home of Thal, Austria and another will be shipped to Columbus, Ohio, where the annual Arnold Fitness Weekend is held. “The actor will keep the third one, and is considering commissioning further likenesses,” the publication noted. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8791928/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-commissions-statues-of-himself.html)
Schwarzenegger said he chose a bodybuilding pose because that’s what launched his movie and political career in the United States.
“It was the bodybuilding that got me to America, that got me into movies, that got me the governorship,” he told the Telegraph. “That’s where I learned about reaching out and helping other people.”
Tim Parks, the owner of Oregon-based TW Bronze, who was hired to pour the metal for the statues, told the New York Daily News that as many as seven of the behemoth statues may be created. (http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/09/26/2011-09-26_arnold_schwarzenegger_plans_to_have_at_least_three_buff_bronze_statues_of_himsel.html)
“Parks, whose sculpture-casting business is located in the small town of Enterprise, says the statues are based on a 22-inch sculpture that Idaho artist Ralph Crawford created in 1980. The artwork immortalizes Schwarzenegger during his ‘Pumping Iron’ days when he won six straight Mr. Olympia titles from 1970-75 and added a seventh in 1980,” the article continued.
The publication notes that the statue, costing roughly $100,000, “depicts a fat-free Schwarzenegger flexing in a classic body-builder pose that flaunts his football-sized biceps, chiseled abs and granite quads.”
The new castings have been super-sized to “heroic” scale — roughly one-and-a-quarter times life size, according to the Wallowa County Chieftain newspaper in Oregon.
While Schwarzenegger wants the statues to commemorate the star in his body building prime, I recommend that he and the sculptor also design three statues to celebrate Schwarzenegger’s “green” legacy as governor of California. There is no doubt that Schwarzenegger “reached and helped other people” – providing they were Wall Street executives, oil industry and other corporate lobbyists, agribusiness leaders, southern California water agency directors, other corrupt politicians and the rich and powerful!
The first statue, the “Fish Terminator,” would portray the “action hero” standing triumphantly in a pile of thousands of dead Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steellhead, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other fish species. This statue would commemorate Schwarzenegger’s leadership role in killing millions of imperiled species in the state and federal Delta pumping facilities by exporting record amounts of water to southern California water agencies and corporate agribusiness from 2004 to 2006.
The second statue, the “Green Governor,” would feature Schwarzenegger and Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, shaking hands as he congratulates her on her appointment as chair of Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative for the South Coast. The statue could either be a sickly green or oil brown color to celebrate the greenwashing that occurred under Schwarzeneggger’s marine “protection” fiasco.
The big oil industry lobbyist, who has repeatedly called for the opening of new offshore oil drilling off the California coast, oversaw a privately funded process that failed to protect ocean waters from oil drilling and spills, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military testing, wave and wind energy projects and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering.
The third statue, “Arnold, the Canal Builder,” would depict Schwarzenegger outfitted in a hard hat, with a shovel in one hand and a copy of the water policy/water bond package that he rammed through the Legislature in November 2009 in the other. Schwarzenegger would be addressing a rally of the agribusiness Astroturf group, the Latino Water Coalition, at the State Capitol to campaign for the construction of the peripheral canal to divert more Delta water to agribusiness and southern California.
These “larger than life” statues should be shipped to Thal, Austria to be displayed prominently in the museum celebrating Schwarzenegger’s life.
Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger’s abysmal environmental legacy continues. Governor Jerry Brown and Nature Resources Secretary John Laird, rather than doing the right thing and reversing Schwarzegger’s war on fish, fishing communities and the environment, have decided to forge ahead with some of the worst of Schwarzenegger’s “green” policies.
The Brown administration has presided over a fish kill at the Delta pumps this year that surpasses even those that took place during the Schwarzenegger administration. Since January 1, over 11,000,000 fish, including nearly 9,000,000 Sacramento splittail, have been “salvaged” in the Delta death pumps. This year is expected to set a new record for water exports via the state and federal pumping facilities.
Likewise, rather than suspending or halting the corrupt MLPA process and implementing a policy of true, wholistic marine protection, the Brown administration has continued forward with a process that has violated numerous state, federal and international laws. In fact, the Coastside Fishing Club, United Anglers of Southern California and Bob Fletcher have to date won three legal victories in a lawsuit against the initiative.
Finally, the Brown administration has joined Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process to build a peripheral canal to meet the so-called “coequal goals” of water supply and ecosystem restoration. A coalition of Delta residents, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, family farmers, the Winnemem Wintu and other California Indian Tribes, local officials and environmental justice communities is opposing the peripheral canal’s construction because it would lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other imperiled fish species.
Not only will the BDCP lead to the extinction of endangered and threatened fish populations, but it will take large tracts of Delta farmland, among the most fertile and productive on the planet, out of production in a fake “habitat restoration” scheme so that water can be delivered to irrigate drainage-impaired land on the San Joaquin Valley’s west side.
So while Schwarzenegger may now commission statues to commemorate his “heroic” status, his legacy of corporate greenwashing and environmental destruction sadly continues in the water and environmental policies embraced by the Brown and Obama administrations.
For more about Schwarzenegger’s “green” legacy, go to: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/11/arnolds-environmental-legacy/
danbacher While claiming that Delta advocates’ fears that the BDCP is a “water grab” were “unfounded,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar admitted that the “flexibility” of the new conveyance could lead to greater water exports, in other words, to a “water grab!” If this isn’t a classic case of political double-speak and cognitive dissonance, I don’t know what is! (http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18929472?source=rss)
Photo of Ken Salazar courtesy of U.S. Department of Interior.
salazar_portrait_small.jpg
by Dan Bacher
The latest Restore the Delta newsletter (http://restorethedelta.org/1286) states, “Salazar got so many things wrong about the Delta that it’s hard to know where to start,” in referring to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s remarks at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 19.
I think that accurately summarizes Salazar’s presentation, a shameless promotion of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor in California history, would be proud of.
“The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is the most important – and most complex – long-term water and habitat management plan ever undertaken,” Salazar gushed. “The BDCP provides a comprehensive approach that includes new habitat for endangered fish species, coordinated measures to attack toxics that are fouling delta waters, and improvements to the state’s water infrastructure.”
However, in the question and answer period after his talk, Salazar revealed the true purpose of the BDCP and the peripheral canal: to increase water exports. Salazar suggested the possibility of “extending” or “expanding” exports to accommodate a growing population.
“He talked about working with others in Colorado to defeat a water grab there,” according to Restore the Delta. “But in the Q&A session following his address, Salazar said building a new aqueduct around the Delta might increase the flexibility of water operations in such a way that it could lead to more water deliveries. Apparently he doesn’t see any similarity between a water grab in Colorado and a water grab in California.”
While claiming that Delta advocates’ fears that the BDCP is a “water grab” were “unfounded,” Salazar admitted that the “flexibility” of the new conveyance could lead to greater water exports, in other words, to a “water grab!” If this isn’t a classic case of political double-speak and cognitive dissonance, I don’t know what is! (http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18929472?source=rss)
Venturing even further into the Theatre of Political Absurdity, Salazar claimed, “We’re not taking shortcuts on the science” – while the overwhelming scientific evidence from federal, state and independent biologists points to the key role that Delta water exports play in the unprecedented decline of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish species.
There is a direct correlation between fish declines and increases in water exports; to deny this is deny reality. It is impossible, now matter how much fake “habitat restoration” is done by the Obama and Brown administrations to greenwash the canal, to increase water exports to southern California water agencies and corporate agribusiness without seeing further fish declines.
One of the most comical comments uttered by Salazar was, “We have to remain faithful to the open, collaborative and transparent process that brought the Bay Delta stakeholders together in the first place.”
Does Salazar live in a parallel universe or what? The BCDP process is one of the least “open, collaborative and transparent” government boondoggles that I’ve ever encountered.
For example, the BDCP “Management Committee” has completely excluded Delta residents, family farmers, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, California Indian Tribes, environmental justice communities and grassroots conservationists. What type of “open, collaborative and tranparent process is this?
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, blasted Salazar as being a tool of big corporate interests – “big corporations’ little thinkers.” That’s exactly what he is – a politician serving corporate agribusiness, southern California water agencies, development interests and water privateers such as Stewart Resnick, the owner of the giant Paramount Farms, not the people of California, fish or the environment.
“So Salazar thinks this is the ‘Granddaddy’ of California water puzzle?” said Sisk-Franco. “This is just another example of big corporations’ little thinkers influencing the top, who influence the law makers to do the wrong thing for most of the people and environment. We can’t afford those kind of hair brained idiot mistakes now!”
As Salazar spoke, one of the biggest fish kills in California history continued. The state and federal government agencies “salvaged” a total of 11,158,021 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011, the result of record water exports. A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to Department of Fish and Game data (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/node/9352). The salvage numbers also list 35,560 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon – all endangered or threatened species.
The CalFed program mandated the construction of the state of the art fish screens a decade ago, but the screens have still not been installed. If they won’t build these screens, do we we really expect them to comply with the laws protecting fish and environment if they build the canal?
Rather than fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal, Salazar and his counterpart in the Brown administration, Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, should do something NOW to stop the massive fish kill in the Delta pumps!
The Salazar speech including the questions and answers is on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-climate/id296762605. For more information about Restore the Delta, go to: http://www.restorethedelta.org. .
danbacher “It doesn’t make sense to put people to work building infrastructure that will destroy jobs,” said Jane Wagner-Tyack, policy analyst for Restore the Delta. “Close to 23,000 jobs in the Delta region are linked to Delta agriculture that is threatened by plans to move Sacramento River water under the Delta.”
Photo of Ken Salazar courtesy of U.S. Department of Interior.
salazar_portrait_small.jpg
by Dan Bacher
On September 19, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar claimed that Delta advocates’ fears of a “water grab” by corporate interests were “unfounded” during his remarks before the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.
Salazar used the opportunity to campaign for support for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to divert more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California. “The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is the most important – and most complex – long-term water and habitat management plan ever undertaken,” Salazar said.
Calling the Delta the “granddaddy” of California water puzzles, Salazar also claimed the BDCP would not harm the Delta region and its imperiled fish populations, but would in fact “help” the ecosystem.
“The BDCP provides a comprehensive approach that includes new habitat for endangered fish species, coordinated measures to attack toxics that are fouling delta waters, and improvements to the state‟s water infrastructure,” stated Salazar. “Rather than simply pumping water from north to south through the Delta – which places immense strain on the system and is unreliable – a new conveyance system would reduce direct conflicts between water supply and fisheries, as the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and many independent scientists have recommended.”
Delta advocates and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe were quick to criticize Salazar’s remarks promoting the construction of the peripheral canal. The Obama administration is the first federal administration in U.S. history to endorse the canal.
“Interior Secretary Ken Salazar used remarks delivered at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 19th to link building ill-conceived conveyance in the Delta to the American Jobs Act the administration has put before Congress,” according to a news release from Restore the Delta.
“It doesn’t make sense to put people to work building infrastructure that will destroy jobs,” said Jane Wagner-Tyack, policy analyst for Restore the Delta. “Close to 23,000 jobs in the Delta region are linked to Delta agriculture that is threatened by plans to move Sacramento River water under the Delta.”
Salazar praised as “open, collaborative, and transparent” the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process driven by water contractors who are fighting to ensure continued high levels of exports from the Delta. In fact, Delta residents, family farmers, California Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmental justice communities and grassroots environmentalists have been completely excluded from the BDCP Management Committee that oversees the “open, collaborative, and transparent” process.
“Exports from the Delta are the primary cause of the destruction of habitat in this estuary,” said Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and a Restore the Delta board member. “The process the exporters are using to plan for the Delta’s future has been anything but collaborative.”
Restore the Delta Executive Director Barrigan-Parrilla noted that the state and federal water contractors have held required meetings soliciting public input, but have continued for three years to move forward with the plan they have always intended to build, ignoring input from Delta locals.
Barrigan-Parrilla said Salazar “threw the weight of the federal government firmly behind moving quickly on the BDCP,” which aims for a draft environmental analysis by June 2012 and a final plan by early 2013.
“They’re pushing this habitat conservation plan through in one-third of the time that similar plans have required for much less complex natural systems elsewhere,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “If Interior is serious about respecting Delta science, they should be putting the brakes on the process instead of urging haste.”
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, also took Salazar to task for his remarks promoting the peripheral canal’s construction.
“So Salazar thinks this is the ‘Granddaddy’ of California water puzzle?” said Sisk-Franco. “This is just another example of big corporations’ little thinkers influencing the top, who influence the law makers to do the wrong thing for most of the people and environment. We can’t afford those kind of hair brained idiot mistakes now!”
As Salazar spoke, one of the biggest fish kills in California history continued. The state and federal government agencies “salvaged” a total of 11,158,021 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011, the result of record water exports. A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to Department of Fish and Game data (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/node/9352).
For the complete transcript of Salazar’s remarks, go to: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/loader.cfm?csModule=security%2Fgetfile&pageid=259148.
In other Delta news, the Sacramento region’s most popular alternative-rock band, the legendary Cake, recently announced its official endorsement of Restore the Delta’s campaign to protect the estuary from state and federal plans to divert more water (http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/eco-friendly-rock-n-roll-lifestyle/content?oid=3682716.
For more information about Restore the Delta, go to: http://www.restorethedelta.org. For more information about the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, go to:http://www.winnememwintu.us.
danbacher by Dan Bacher
Brown has not yet appointed anyone to the new, unpaid position.
“This position will serve as a direct link between the Governor’s Office and tribal governments on matters including legislation, policy and regulation,” according to a news release from the Governor’s Office. “Governor Brown signed the Executive Order today while attending the TASIN All California Tribes Meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Sacramento, CA.”
According to the order, the position will facilitate communication and consultations between the Tribes, the Office of the Governor, state agencies, and agency tribal liaisons and review state legislation and regulations affecting Tribes and make recommendations on these proposals.
The order also declared the “Office of the Governor shall meet regularly with the elected officials of California Indian Tribes to discuss state policies that may affect tribal communities.”
In addition, the order stated it is “the policy of this Administration that every state agency and department subject to my executive control shall encourage communication and consultation with California Indian Tribes.”
In one noteworthy difference with the federal government, Brown’s order doesn’t apply just to Federally Recognized Tribes, but to all California Native Americans.
The lack of state government consultation with California Indian Tribes has been a persistent problem, as evidenced by the recent battle by the Yurok and other North Coast Tribes to pressure the state of California to recognize Tribal gathering rights under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The failure of the state to consult with Tribes has also been evidenced by the state’s failure to include Tribal representatives in The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and other governmental processes.
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, responded to Brown’s action by saying, “This seems like a good Executive Order that the Governor has signed.” However, she had a number of questions about the Order.
“One has to wonder why Tribes like the Winnemem Wintu were not invited to the meeting at the Sheridan Inn?” Sisk-Franco asked. “Will there be fair representation available to all Tribes? Will there be a position available for ‘Unrecognized” Calif. Tribal staff to represent the issues? Federally Recognized tribes have not represented these issues fairly.”
The Tribe is now engaged in an ambitious program to return the original strain of endangered winter run chinook salmon, now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand, to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta.
The Winnemem Wintu are a traditional Tribe who inhabits their ancestral territory from Mt. Shasta down the McCloud River watershed, according to the Tribe’s website (http://www.winnememwintu.us/). When the Shasta Dam was constructed during World War II, it flooded their home and blocked the salmon runs.
“The salmon are an integral part of our lifeway and of a healthy McCloud River watershed,” according to the Tribe. “We believe that when the last salmon is gone, humans will be gone too. Our fight to return the salmon to the McCloud River is no less than a fight to save the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. As salmon people and middle water people we advocate for all aspects of clean water and the restoration of salmon to their natural spawning grounds.”
The text of the Executive Order is below:
EXECUTIVE ORDER B-10-11
WHEREAS California is home to many Native American Tribes with whom the State of California has an important relationship, as set forth and affirmed in state and federal law; and
WHEREAS the State of California recognizes and reaffirms the inherent right of these Tribes to exercise sovereign authority over their members and territory; and
WHEREAS the State and the Tribes are better able to adopt and implement mutually-beneficial policies when they cooperate and engage in meaningful consultation; and
WHEREAS the State is committed to strengthening and sustaining effective government-to-government relationships between the State and the Tribes by identifying areas of mutual concern and working to develop partnerships and consensus; and
WHEREAS tribal people, as both citizens of California and their respective sovereign nations, have a shared interest in creating increased opportunities for all California citizens.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the State of California, do hereby issue the following orders to become effective immediately:
IT IS ORDERED that the position of Governor’s Tribal Advisor shall exist within the Office of the Governor;
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Governor’s Tribal Advisor shall oversee and implement effective government-to-government consultation between my Administration and Tribes on policies that affect California tribal communities, and shall:
Serve as a direct link between the Tribes and the Governor of the State of California.
Facilitate communication and consultations between the Tribes, the Office of the Governor, state agencies, and agency tribal liaisons.
Review state legislation and regulations affecting Tribes and make recommendations on these proposals.
IT IS FUTHER ORDERED that the Office of the Governor shall meet regularly with the elected officials of California Indian Tribes to discuss state policies that may affect tribal communities.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that it is the policy of this Administration that every state agency and department subject to my executive control shall encourage communication and consultation with California Indian Tribes. Agencies and departments shall permit elected officials and other representatives of tribal governments to provide meaningful input into the development of legislation, regulations, rules, and policies on matters that may affect tribal communities.
For purposes of this Order, the terms “Tribe,” “California Indian Tribe”, and “tribal” include all Federally Recognized Tribes and other California Native Americans.
This Executive Order is not intended to create, and does not create, any rights or benefits, whether substantive or procedural, or enforceable at law or in equity, against the State of California or its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or any other person.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this Order shall be filed with the Office of the Secretary of State and that it be given widespread publicity and notice.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my
hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 19th day of September 2011.
___________________________________
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California
ATTEST:
___________________________________
DEBRA BOWEN
Secretary of State
###
danbacher The plan states, “The Yurok Tribe requests the Commission to adopt option one based upon the following legal, factual and historical record submitted on behalf of the Yurok Tribe. Adoption would be for concurrence with the Yurok MLPA Marine Resources plan which provides for a non‐commercial non‐exclusive right of the Yurok Tribe to continue traditional, ceremonial, religious, and cultural harvesting as has been practiced continuously for 10,000 plus years or time immemorial.”
Photo: Members of the Yurok, Hoopa and Karuk Tribes walk down a path in Patrick’s Point State Park on June 18 after gathering seaweed, mussels and clams to protest proposed restrictions on coastal gathering proposed under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. Photo by Matt Mais, Yurok Tribe.
640_268.jpgYurok Tribe Submits MLPA and Marine Resource Planby Dan Bacher
North Coast Indian Tribes, along with conservationists, fishermen, and environmental justice advocates, have been vocal critics of the state of California’s failure to acknowledge tribal gathering rights in marine protected areas created under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to date.
Over 300 people including members of 50 Native American nations and their allies peacefully took over the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010 to protest the violation of sovereign gathering rights under the MLPA initiative.
Spurred by this protest and other direct actions, the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force was for the first time forced to approve language supporting tribal gathering rights, language that was adopted in the unified proposal developed by fishing, environmental, business and tribal stakeholders. A large contingent of North Coast residents also supported “Option Zero,” a proposal to keep existing fishing regulations and existing marine protected areas, including the massive Rockfish Conservation Zone, intact.
Two proposals submitted at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Redding on September 15 – one by the Yurok Tribe and the other by the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council – are currently under consideration by the Commission to resolve the tribal gathering issue.
The Yurok Tribe submitted a “MLPA and Marine Resource Plan” providing a factual record of the tribe’s marine resource use (http://www.yuroktribe.org/government/tribalattorney/documents/2011.08.29_YurokTribe-FactualRecordtoCAFGC.pdf).
The Commission voted 4 to 1 on June 29 to adopt Tribal Option 1 as the “preferred alternative” within the North Coast Study Region, to allow tribal gathering to continue within proposed State Marine Conservation Areas (SMCAs) by federally recognized tribes who, within sixty (60) days, submitted a “factual record with sufficient documentation confirming current or historical use within the proposed SMCAs.”
This option would require tribal members sixteen or older to show, on the request of a game warden, a state recreational fishing license in addition to a federally recognized Tribal ID – and be limited by state regulations.
In a press release sent after the June 29 meeting, Thomas O’Rourke, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe, slammed the decision for “failing to protect traditional gathering rights.”
“I cannot accept the part about the fishing license,” said O’Rourke. “The Fish and Game has taken an unjust and patronizing step. No one can separate these resources from our culture.”
The September 15 plan, including language regarding the substitution of a Tribal fishing license for a state fishing license and a SMCA designation for Redding Rock, was the Tribe’s response to the Commission’s action.
“The Yurok Tribe currently issues identification cards to our tribal members,” the plan states. “We are planning to adopt a Marine Resource Ordinance which is comparable to the existing identification card system of our in‐river fishery regulatory system.”
In a cover letter to the plan, Marjorie Buckskin, Vice-Chairperson of the Yurok Tribe, requested the Commission to adopt Option 1 and concur with the implementation of the MLPA with the Yurok Marine Resource Plan. She also requested that the Commission adopt as the preferred CEQA project a SMCA designation for Redding Rock, “an area which holds tremendous religious value to the Yuroks.”
“The Yurok Tribe has provided as an integral part of our proposal a mutual reservation of rights so as to protect the legal rights of the Tribe, the State of California and the Commission. Our plan is non-exclusive, allowing others to also use the resources,” she said.
The plan would be implemented in stages as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is negotiated, various State regulations are changed, scientific experiments are approved, and in some cases legislation is enacted.
For example, there is no provision for the recreational/Native American take of barnacles in current Fish and Game regulations. The harvest of barnacles will require a future change in the regulations by the Fish and Game Commission based on a subsequent public hearing and CEQA analysis.
The plan also notes that any substitution of a Tribal license for a State license cannot be agreed to by the Fish and Game Commission until such time as there is a legislative amendment.
The plan will be implemented in stages as provided for by applicable federal and state law. In addition, the plan provides for adaptive management.
“It is further understood, that scientific surveys may affect the desired implementation and necessitate adaptive management changes,” the document states.
“The Yurok Tribe requests the Commission to adopt option one based upon the following legal, factual and historical record submitted on behalf of the Yurok Tribe. Adoption would be for concurrence with the Yurok MLPA Marine Resources plan which provides for a non‐commercial non‐exclusive right of the Yurok Tribe to continue traditional, ceremonial, religious, and cultural harvesting as has been practiced continuously for 10,000 plus years or time immemorial,” the Tribe concludes.
Scoping meetings scheduled for North Coast environmental document
The California Fish and Game Commission will be reviewing and potentially adopting proposed regulations for marine protected areas (MPAs) in state waters, developed under the privately funded MLPA Initiative, within the northern California coast region stretching from Point Arena to the California/Oregon border.
Pursuant to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) will prepare a CEQA equivalent draft environmental document for the Commission regarding the new marine protected areas, according to an announcement from Horizon Water and Environment, LLC on behalf of the DFG.
The environmental document and more information on the proposed project are posted on the Department’s MLPA website: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa. Comments are due no later than October 14, 2011.
The Department will hold four public scoping meetings on the development of the draft environmental document. The dates, times, and exact locations of the scoping meetings are as follows:
1. Crescent City – Monday, September 26, 2011 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. at the Del Norte County Board Chamber Building (981 H Street, Crescent City, CA 95531);
2. Fortuna – Tuesday, September 27, 2011 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. at the Fortuna River Lodge (1800 Riverwalk Dr., Fortuna, CA 95540);
3. Fort Bragg – Wednesday, September 28, 2011 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. at the Dana Grey Elementary School (1197 Chestnut St., Fort Bragg, CA 95437); and
4. Sacramento – Tuesday, October 4, 2011 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. at the Sacramento Department of Health Care Services and Department of Health Building (1500 Capital Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95814)
The response relative to the scope of the environmental document must be sent at the earliest possible date, but postmarked no later than 5:00 p.m. on October 14, 2011 in order for your comments to be considered in the environmental document.
Please send responses to this Notice of Preparation to:
“MLPA North Coast CEQA Scoping Comments”
California Department of Fish and Game
c/o Horizon Water and Environment
P.O. Box 2727
Oakland, CA 94602Comments may also be submitted via email to: MLPAcomments [at] HorizonWater.com. Your comments should include your name, address, and daytime telephone number so a representative of the Department can contact you if clarifications regarding your comments are required.
MLPA Initiative Background:
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA “Initiative” to “implement” the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of “marine protected areas” included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public “partnership” funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
MLPA and state officials refused to appoint any tribal scientists to the MLPA Science Advisory Team (SAT), in spite of the fact that the Yurok Tribe alone has a Fisheries Department with over 70 staff members during the peak fishing season, including many scientists. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force also didn’t include any tribal representatives until 2010 when one was finally appointed to the panel.
danbacher On Dec. 15, 2010 the Commission adopted regulations to create a “suite of MPAs” in the the South Coast Study Region, stretching from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the U.S./Mexico border, under the controversial MLPA Initiative. This network of 49 MPAs and three special closures covers approximately 354 square miles of state waters and represents approximately 15 percent of the region.
Photo of Tijuana River mouth courtesy of Lis Cox, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
tijuana_river_mouth_1.jpeg
by Dan Bacher
(Redding) The California Fish and Game Commission on Thursday, September 15 selected Jan. 1, 2012 as the new effective date for implementation of the “marine protected areas” (MPAs) in Southern California under the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
The Commission delayed the implementation of the fishing closures from the previous effective date of October 1, 2011 after the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) disapproved the regulation package, informing the Commission that it had additional questions and requests for more information that will require a re-notice of the regulations.
OAL disapproved the regulatory action for the failure to comply with notice requirements for modification of the regulatory text; failure to comply with the ‘Necessity’ standard of Government Code section 11349; failure to include all relied upon documents in the rulemaking file; failure to provide the reasons for rejecting alternatives that were considered; and failure to adequately respond to all of the public comments made regarding the proposed action.
The 9-page ruling detailed how each of these areas of state law were violated in the rush by the Commission and MLPA Initiative officials to create “marine protected areas” in a process chaired by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA). George G. Shaw, Senior Staff Council, and Debra N. Cornex, Assistant Chief Counsel Acting Director, for the Office of Administrative Law signed the document.
On Dec. 15, 2010 the Commission adopted regulations to create a “suite of MPAs” in the the South Coast Study Region, stretching from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the U.S./Mexico border, under the controversial MLPA Initiative. This network of 49 MPAs and three special closures covers approximately 354 square miles of state waters and represents approximately 15 percent of the region.
“All of the information requested by OAL is expected to be provided in time for the Commission to put the potential re-adoption of the regulatory package on its October agenda,” according to a statement from Jordan Traverso of the Department of Fish and Game.
“If re-adopted, the new effective date of Jan. 1, 2012 allows time for OAL to review and approve the re-submitted regulations, finalizing the lawmaking process. It also allows the Commission and Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to better inform affected ocean users of the new regulations,” said Traverso.
However, whether the South Coast or proposed North Coast marine protected areas will ever go into effect is questionable, since the legitimacy of the corrupt MLPA Initiative process is being challenged in state court in a lawsuit by United Anglers of Southern California, the Coastside Fishing Club and Bob Fletcher.
A hearing is scheduled September 26 in San Diego on the validity of MPAs in effect on the North Central Coast since May 1, 2010. For information on this lawsuit vital to the rights of all Californians to be governed by state agencies which comply with state law, see: http://www.oceanaccessprotectionfund.org.
“Fishers, seaweed harvesters, tribal food gatherers, all ocean food providers have been hurt badly by the new North Central Coast MPAs,” emphasized John Lewallen, North Coast environmental leader and fierce opponent of the MLPA Initiative.
He noted that “marine protected areas,” established in 2007 under the privately funded MLPA Initiative, are also in effect on the Central Coast, while a plan for new MPAs on the North Coast is in process.
“Hopefully all these products of a privatized process rife with secret meetings, bad science, conflict of interest and scorning of state meeting and administrative law will be invalidated,” said Lewallen.
Lewallen, the co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the North Coast Seaweed Rebellion, has been in the forefront of grass roots campaigns against oil drilling, the clear cutting of ancient forests, wave energy projects and military testing off the coast and other environmental battles for over three decades.
Lewallen is the author of “Ecology of Devastation: Indochina” (1971) and co-authored with James Robertson a handbook on environmental organizing, “The Grass Roots Primer” (1975), published by Sierra Club Books. He has written numerous articles on environmental issues for an array of publications since then.
For more information on the south coast MPAs or MLPA, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/southcoast.asp.
MLPA Initiative Background:
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA “Initiative” to “implement” the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of “marine protected areas” included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public “partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
MLPA and state officials refused to appoint any tribal scientists to the MLPA Science Advisory Team (SAT), in spite of the fact that the Yurok Tribe alone has a Fisheries Department with over 70 staff members during the peak fishing season, including many scientists. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force also didn’t include any tribal representatives until 2010 when one was finally appointed to the panel.
danbacher “Hopefully all these products of a privatized process rife with secret meetings, bad science, conflict of interest and scorning of state meeting and administrative law will be invalidated,” said John Lewallen, North Coast environmental leader and longtime advocate for democracy and transparency in government.
Photo: Over 300 people, including members of 50 Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, immigrant seafood industry workers, commercial fishermen, conservationists and environmental justice advocates, marched through the streets of Fort Bragg on July 21, 2010 to protest the privately funded MLPA Initiative. The protesters peacefully took over the meeting of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to protest the violation of tribal gathering rights under the MLPA. To date, the California Fish and Game Commission has refused to acknowledge tribal gathering rights on the California coast under the MLPA Initiative, a process overseen by a big oil lobbyist, agribusiness hack, real estate executive, coastal developer and other corporate operatives.
“Any attempt to institutionally diminish our right to gather coastal resources is essentially an act of ethnic cleansing,” Yurok Tribal Chairman Thomas O’Rourke said in a news release on June 27. “We depend on these traditions to carry on our culture for the rest of time.”
640_img_9676_1.jpg
by Dan Bacher
John Lewallen, North Coast environmental leader and longtime advocate for democracy and transparency in government, on September 14 praised the Office of Administrative Law’s disapproval of so-called “marine protected areas” in Southern California.
“On September 2, the State Office of Administrative Law (OAL) disapproved all of the new Marine Protected Areas (MPA) proposed for California’s South Coast by the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative,” said Lewallen. “In a five-point rejection statement, the OAL said that the California Fish & Game Commission had failed to follow public notice requirements, to show a necessity for the new MPAs, to submit all documents relied on, to provide reasons for rejecting alternatives, and to adequately respond to all public comments.”
Lewallen also said the legitimacy of the corrupt MLPA Initiative process also is being challenged in state court, with a hearing scheduled September 26 in San Diego on the validity of MPAs in effect on the North Central Coast since May 1, 2010. For information on this lawsuit vital to the rights of all Californians to be governed by state agencies which comply with state law, see: http://www.oceanaccessprotectionfund.org.
“Fishers, seaweed harvesters, tribal food gatherers, all ocean food providers have been hurt badly by the new North Central Coast MPAs,” emphasized Lewallen.
He noted that “marine protected areas,” established in 2007 under the privately funded MLPA Initiative, are also in effect on the Central Coast, while a plan for new MPAs on the North Coast is in process.
“Hopefully all these products of a privatized process rife with secret meetings, bad science, conflict of interest and scorning of state meeting and administrative law will be invalidated,” said Lewallen.
Lewallen, the co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the North Coast Seaweed Rebellion, has been in the forefront of grass roots campaigns against oil drilling, the clear cutting of ancient forests, wave energy projects and military testing off the coast and other environmental battles for over three decades. Lewallen is the author of “Ecology of Devastation: Indochina” (1971) and co-authored with James Robertson a handbook on environmental organizing, “The Grass Roots Primer” (1975), published by Sierra Club Books. He has written numerous articles on environmental issues for an array of publications since then.
Lewallen exposed role of big oil lobbyist in creating MPAs
In June 2009, Lewallen and his wife, Barbara, organized the historic “Point Arena Sustainable Fisheries Tour” to kick off the campaign against the MLPA Initiative on the North and North Central Coasts. The summit featured talks by North Coast environmental leaders, including Judith Vidaver of the Ocean Protection Coalition and longtime salmon restoration advocate Craig Bell, as well as commercial fishermen, Native American activists, recreational anglers, seaweed harvesters and environmental justice advocates.
At the summit and many times since then, Lewallen has criticized the key role that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association and an ardent advocate of new oil drilling off the California coast, played in the MLPA process. Reheis-Boyd was chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as serving on the North Central Coast and North Coast Task Forces. Lewallen believes Reheis-Boyd’s position as an “oil industry superstar” is a conflict of interest with her leadership role in developing so-called marine protected areas (MPAs).
“By setting up these no-take marine reserves and kicking fishermen, Indians, seaweed harvesters and other ocean food providers off traditional areas of the ocean, the Schwarzenegger administration is paving the way for offshore oil drilling,” Lewallen said in 2009. “Twenty-three percent of the nation’s offshore oil reserves are off the coast of California. The Point Arena Basin off Mendocino is on track now to be leased for drilling by the Mineral Management Services.”
MLPA Initiative Background:
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA “Initiative” to “implement” the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of “marine protected areas” included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public “partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
MLPA and state officials refused to appoint any tribal scientists to the MLPA Science Advisory Team (SAT), in spite of the fact that the Yurok Tribe alone has a Fisheries Department with over 70 staff members during the peak fishing season, including many scientists. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force also didn’t include any tribal representatives until 2010 when one was finally appointed to the panel.
danbacher “These Proposed Contracts, if implemented, would have adverse impacts on the Delta, including but not limited to degraded water quality; harmful impacts upon sensitive and/or endangered species; lost of fish and wildlife habitat; and impaired recreation,” the document concludes.
The 117 mile-long Delta Mendota Canal delivers Delta water to Westlands Water District and other San Joaquin Valley water contractors. Photo courtesy of US Bureau of Reclamation.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), Friends of the River, North Coast River Alliance, Save the American River Association and Winnemem Wintu Tribe have filed a lawsuit against Westlands Water District and its two water distribution districts over the renewal of six interim water service contracts.
The action, filed 25 August 2011, concerns six Central Valley Project (CVP) contracts providing up to over one million acre feet of water annually from the Delta. The groups and Tribe say water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are a principle reason for the decline of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
Westlands, et al, claims the contracts are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A call to a spokesperson for Westlands regarding their rationale for claiming a CEQA exemption had not been returned at press time.
The coalition disagrees strongly with the CEQA exemption for the contracts. The lawsuit asks for: injunctive relief, restraining the defendant from carrying out the project; a writ of mandate, setting aside contract approval; and declaratory relief, declaring the contracts to be unlawful, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director/Chairman of CSPA.
“The environmental devastation wrought on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by Central Valley Project operations generally and Westlands’ diversions specifically has become patent in recent years,” the petition states. “The importation of over 1,000,000 acre feet of water from the Delta to Westlands has caused substantial harm to the Delta’s imperiled fisheries. Boron, selenium and salt pollution in the Delta originates in part from return flow discharged by Westlands and surrounding water contractors.”
Key fish species imperiled by Delta water exports and contaminated return flows include winter, spring and fall runs of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and threadfin shad, according to the petition.
“These Proposed Contracts, if implemented, would have adverse impacts on the Delta, including but not limited to degraded water quality; harmful impacts upon sensitive and/or endangered species; lost of fish and wildlife habitat; and impaired recreation,” the document concludes.
The lawsuit takes place at a critical time for Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. Over 11 million fish have been “salvaged” in the state and federal pumping facilities in the South Delta since January 1 as record amounts of water are exported to southern California and corporate agribusiness.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged by September 7, according to Department of Fish and Game data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
Agency staff also listed 35,560 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon as “salvaged” in the pumping facilities this year to date (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1/).
Chinook salmon, a fish devastated in recent years by record water exports out of the estuary, are an integral part of the religion and culture of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe and other Native American nations. The Tribe is now engaged in an ambitious program to return the original strain of winter run chinook salmon, now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand, to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta.
“Salmon are the ultimate source of good health for California Indians that have been missing from our diets for generations now,” said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “We need them back in our rivers and we need them back in our diets for balance to return to our world.”
The lawsuit also proceeds at time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal through the Bay Conservation Plan (BDCP) to divert more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.
The law offices of Stephan C. Volker are representing CSPA and the Coalition in this matter. For more information, go to: http://www.calsport.org.
