danbacher The MLPA Initiative, strongly criticized by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes, human rights activists and civil liberties advocates, has violated an array of state, federal and international laws since the process was privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation in 2004.
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by Dan Bacher
In a victory for opponents of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and champions of open and democratic process in California, the Office of Administrative Law on September 2 disapproved the so-called “marine protected areas” (MPAs) for the Southern California coast that were originally slated to go into effect on October 1, 2011.
The California Fish and Game Commission announced that it will discuss “alternative effective dates” for implementation of the marine protected areas at its September 15 meeting in Redding. The Commission delayed the implementation of the fishing closures after OAL informed 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 following reasons:
• 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 details 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.
The ruling emphasizes that the Fish and Game Commission is not exempt from the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act, regardless of what Commissioners may think.
“The amendment of regulations by the Commission must satisfy requirements established by the part of the APA that governs rulemaking by a state agency,” according to the ruling. “Any rule or regulation adopted by a state agency to implement, interpret, or make specific the law enforced or administered by it, or to govern its procedure, is subject to the APA unless a statute expressly exempts the regulation from APA compliance (Gov. Code, sec. 11346). No statute exempts the Commission’s rulemaking from APA compliance.”
The MLPA Initiative, strongly criticized by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes, human rights activists and civil liberties advocates, has violated an array of state, federal and international laws since the process was privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation in 2004.
The complete OAL ruling is available at: http://www.oal.ca.gov/res/docs/pdf/disapproval_decisions/2011/2011-0722-04S-DisappDec.pdf.
The request for “Commission guidance” on the effective date of South Coast marine protected areas, due to the OAL decision, is listed as item 12 on the Commission meeting on September 15.
Lawsuit challenges North Central Coast and South Coast regulations
A pending lawsuit filed by members of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), a coalition representing the interests of California’s recreational anglers and boaters in the MLPA process, adds further uncertainty to when, if ever, the South Coast regulations will go into effect.
The lawsuit seeks to set aside the MLPA regulations for the North Central and South Coast study regions, citing a “lack of statutory authority” for the Fish and Game Commission to adopt the regulations. In the case of the South Coast regulations, the litigation cites numerous violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the Commission’s environmental review of the regulations.
A hearing on the North Central Coast portion of the case has been set for September 26, 2011 in San Diego. The controversial North Central Coast marine protected areas have been in place since May 1, 2010.
“I’m very pleased that OAL has seen many of the same flaws that we’ve been seeing alll along in this process,” said Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I don’t know what the length of the delay will be, but we’re hearing from informed sources that the implementation of South Coast marine protected areas will be delayed until January 1, 2012.”
He added that the outcome of their litigation could determine whether or not the fishing closures will ever go into effect.
“It is clear to us that these regulations are the result of a flawed process and should be overturned,” said David Elm, chairman of United Anglers of Southern California (UASC), also a plaintiff. “I urge all anglers, and anyone who supports public access to public resources, to join our fight against the MLPA process in the courts by visitinghttp://www.OceanAccessProtectionFund.org and making a donation today.”
Over the past year, recreational fishing groups have scored three court victories in a row against the MLPA Initiative. In June, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled that two NGOs, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Ocean Conservancy, had no legal right to intervene in the lawsuit by Fletcher, UASC and the Coastside Fishing Club.
Grassroots environmental leaders, including John Lewallen, the co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the North Coast Seaweed Rebellion, strongly support the litigation against the MLPA Initiative.
“A California Superior Court lawsuit challenging the authority of the state to let the private Resources Legacy Fund Foundation operate a process of setting up Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in violation of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the Coastal Act, and other state laws deserves the support of all Californians,” said Lewallen.
The three court victories and the OAL decision prove that claims by MLPA Initiative officials and advocates that the process has been “open, transparent and inclusive” are without any basis in fact.
Commission still refuses to acknowledge tribal gathering rights
The privately funded MLPA process to create so-called “marine protected areas,” in a classic example of institutional racism and elitism, completely excluded tribal scientists from the MLPA Science Advisory Team. Nor did state officials appointed any tribal representatives on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force until 2010, six years after the privatized process began in 2004 under the direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, one was finally appointed.
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.”
Under “Option 1″ of the preferred alternative for North Coast marine protected areas that the Fish and Game Commission accepted during the June 29 meeting, tribal members sixteen or older would have 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.
The Yurok Tribe said this decision “failed 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.”
Tribal proposals for marine protected areas on the North coast will be discussed at the Commission meeting on Thursday, September 15. The discussion is listed as item 4 on the agenda. The meeting will start at 8:30 a.m. at the Red Lion Hotel, Sierra Room, 11830 Hilltop Drive, Redding (http://www.fgc.ca.gov).
For more information about the Yurok Tribe, go to: http://www.yuroktribe.org.
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 and a member of the task forces for the North Central Coast and North 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.
danbacher The Planning and Conservation League today announced its opposition to controversial “reforms” of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) approved by the Legislature.
“The Planning & Conservation League, joining with a coalition including Sierra Club California, Coalition for Clean Air, Clean Water Action, and a host of environmental justice and community groups from the Los Angeles area and throughout California, tried valiantly to stave off three bills that will weaken protections of The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),” the group wrote.
“Unfortunately, SB 226 (Simitian), SB 292 (Padilla) and AB 900 (Buchanan), all either introduced or dramatically amended in the last 36 hours of the legislative session, passed the Legislature on its final day of session. SB 226 will, if signed into law by the Governor, exempt from CEQA certain urban projects deemed ‘green’, with inadequate definitions of for what defines ‘urban’ and ‘green,’” PCL said.
AB 900, while not an exemption, “streamlines” CEQA’s judicial review requirements, potentially limiting the public’s voice in challenging projects.
These questionable “reforms” take place at a time when over 11 million fish have been killed in the state and federal Delta water pumping facilities since January 1. Undermining CEQA only makes the epic task of restoring our imperiled Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations even harder. For more information on the Delta fish carnage, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1/
These “reforms” have been passed by the Legislature at a time when our fish populations, fishing rights and environment are under assault by corporate interests. The Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process to build their beloved peripheral canal to export more water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies.
The attempt to exempt so-called “green” projects from CEQA sounds like yet another opportunity for corporate interests to greenwash their legacy by setting up fake “green” projects that are not subject to a thorough environmental review.
This is the problem that grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribes encountered in dealing with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. MLPA advocates argued that since the MLPA, overseen by oil industry, real estate, marina development, agribusiness and other corporate operatives, was a “green” project, it was not subject to a complete environmental review under CEQA.
The attempt to further limit the public voice by “streamlining” CEQA’s judicial requirements under AB 900 also couldn’t come at a worse time, a time when the state and federal governments have launched a virtual war on civil liberties, freedom of speech and assembly, democratic process and the U.S and California Constitutions.
SB 226, SB 292 and AB 900 exemplify how the Legislature has become little more than a tool of corporate interests and corrupt political operatives who seek to overthrow what few vestiges of democracy and public process remain in California!
Below is the complete statement from the PCL Insider:
CONTROVERSIAL CEQA REFORMS APPROVED BY LEGISLATURE
PCL stands strong with coalition partners in opposing 11th-hour bills that weaken California’s landmark environmental and community protection law
The Planning & Conservation League, joining with a coalition including Sierra Club California, Coalition for Clean Air, Clean Water Action, and a host of environmental justice and community groups from the Los Angeles area and throughout California, tried valiantly to stave off three bills that will weaken protections of The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Unfortunately, SB 226 (Simitian), SB 292 (Padilla) and AB 900 (Buchanan), all either introduced or dramatically amended in the last 36 hours of the legislative session, passed the Legislature on its final day of session. SB 226 will, if signed into law by the Governor, exempt from CEQA certain urban projects deemed ‘green’, with inadequate definitions of for what defines ‘urban’ and ‘green’.
It could, therefore, allow sprawl or other impactful projects without adequate environmental review. AB 900, while not an exemption, “streamlines” CEQA’s judicial review requirements, potentially limiting the public’s voice in challenging projects. And SB 292 is, most simply, special treatment under the law for an influential developer (AEG) seeking to build a downtown Los Angeles football stadium. By depriving petitioners of the opportunity for superior court jurisdiction, SB 292 and AB 900 may even violate the California Constitution.
PCL certainly wants to see California take necessary and overdue steps to promote green projects in California, while putting people back to work and transforming the State into a leader in sustainable development; but these 11th-hour efforts, while perhaps well-intentioned, were ill-conceived. They attack important protections of CEQA that have given communities a voice in the development process for more than four decades, with a great deal of uncertainty as to whether these measures were needed to, or will in fact, create more jobs in California.
Moreover, the measures themselves were hastily crafted and poorly thought-out. Some legislators, such as Senator Sam Blakeslee (R, 15th District), did complain about the hastily crafted nature of AB 900 before voting against the bill. That legislation’s shortcomings were seemingly acknowledged by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, (D, 6th District), who agreed that ‘clean-up’ legislation will have to be introduced next year to address the problems with AB 900. In addition to depriving legislators with final bill language before they voted, the rushed process also deprived the public from having meaningful input into the process.
PCL would like to thank the many organizations and individuals who stood strong against this process, and the legislators, like Senator Noreen Evans (D, 2nd District) Assembly member Jared Huffman (D, 6th District) who spoke so eloquently for good governance and for environmental and community protection.
While disappointed at the outcome, PCL will continue to work with its environmental partners, the Legislature, and local communities to ensure that projects developed pursuant these streamlined processes will still protect our environment and public welfare, while we continue to advocate for CEQA to remain a strong environmental bill of rights for all Californians.
For more information, contact the Planning and Conservation League (PCL)
1107 9th Street, Suite 901, Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone (916) 822-5631 • Fax (916) 822-5650
pclmail [at] pcl.org • http://www.PCL.org • http://www.PCLFoundation.org
danbacher “The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation are the biggest poachers in California history!” exclaimed Bill Jennings, Executive Director/Chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
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by Dan Bacher
In one of the biggest fish kills in California history, the state and federal government agencies “salvaged” a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011.
The Central Valley Project and State Water Project pumps in the south end of the California Delta export water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
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. 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.
During the 8-day period from May 16 though May 23 when the splittail were entering the pumping facilities in the greatest numbers, a total of 4,400,073 splittail were documented.
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 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon.
The staff recorded a total of 46 species of fish salvaged in the facilities, including bigscale logperch (695), bluegill (92,615), lamprey (3,861), largemouth bass (59,041) and Sacramento sucker (27,358).
The salvage data also lists 4 “Northern Pike.” Whether these were actually the predatory pike, a fish that the DFG spent tens of millions of dollars to eliminate from Frenchman and Davis lakes in the northern Sierra Nevada because of their threat to native salmon and other fish populations, or were misidentified by staff hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Though no comprehensive studies have been conducted on how many of the salvaged fish survive, fish advocates believe that the majority of many species perish during and after the salvage process.
Actual fish losses greatly exceed salvage numbers
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).
“These salvage statistics greatly understate the total number of fish entrained, since they do not include the number of fish lost to predators or lost through the fish screens,” the report stated. “In fact, recent estimates indicate that 5-10 times more fish are lost than are salvaged, largely due to the high predation losses in and around water project facilities.”
Based on this data, the actual number of fish killed in the pumps to date this year could be anywhere from 55 to 110 million!
The Walker report also cites DFG and DWR studies as showing that 75% of fish entering Clifton Court Forebay are lost to predation in project facilities before they reach the salvage facilities. An additional 20-30% are lost at the salvage facility louvers.
Of the remaining fish actually salvaged, 1-12% are lost during handling and trucking operation and another 10-30% are lost to post-release predation because there are only 4 release sites, according to the report.
The numbers are far worse for Delta smelt, an endangered species that is considered an indicator of the health of the estuary, since 94-99% are lost to predation in project facilities and virtually no salvaged delta smelt survive trucking and handling.
Fishing Group, Winnemen Wintu Tribe outraged over Delta fish kill
Bill Jennings, executive director/Chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), is outraged by the massive carnage that
has occurred in the state and federal pumping facilities this year.
Reacting to the release of the latest salvage data, Jennings said, “I don’t think any estuary can stand an assault on fish populations in the numbers that we’re seeing. The project pumps are by far the largest predator in the entire estuary. The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation are the biggest poachers in California history!”
Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Tribe, who is working on an innovative plan to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta, is also appalled by the millions of fish killed to date.
“I am just wondering why it is okay to have the largest fish kill going on in the Delta and no one notices,” said Sisk-Franco. “There are more endangered fish killed every day in the Delta pumps that are supposed to be protected. Try catching one of them to eat, and see how fast you get in trouble, but just let them swim into the Delta pumps and no one is trying to save them!”
Sisk-Franco asked, “How many dead fish is too many? Who will speak up for the fish? Everything is connected and soon we will understand what this fish kill means to the human beings.”
Bush and Obama administrations oppose splittail protection
The Sacramento splittail, the imperiled native fish that have perished in the greatest numbers in the Delta “poaching” facilities this year, were formerly protected as a threatened species but illegally stripped of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in 2003 during the Julie McDonald “Splittailgate” Scandal. McDonald, a high-ranking Bush administration official, helped remove the splittail from the list of threatened and endangered species because of the economic threat she believed that it posed to her farm near Dixon, California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last fall made a controversial determination that the species does not warrant protection, despite the fact that numbers of splittail found in the annual fall DFG midwater trawl surveys have fallen to consistently low levels since 2002, and that the estimated population from 2002 to 2010 has been the lowest recorded since surveys began in 1967, according to Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Obama administration, in denying the splittail ESA protection in October 2010, claimed that the capture of huge numbers of fish by the pumping facilities in wet years has little impact on splittail abundance.
The unprecedented loss of fish life in the pumping facilities occurs as the pumps are currently exporting record amounts of water to corporate agribusiness and southern California under the “leadership” of Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird.
“Exports from the Bay-Delta may reach an all-time high in 2011,” according to Spreck Rosecrans, an economic analyst at Environmental Defense (http://blogs.edf.org/waterfront/2011/07/15/delta-exports-projected-to-reach-record-level-in-2011/). “Through July 15, pumping for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project has totaled 4.86 million acre-feet. With ample supplies in northern reservoirs and Sierra rivers still full of melting snow, it is likely that the pumps will continue to run at or near capacity through the end of the water year (September 30).”
The annual export total is projected to reach 6,610,000 acre-feet – 140,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, Rosecrans explained.
At the same time, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is wholesaling water at discount prices, since southern California reservoirs have largely filled (http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_surplus11.3abcf4c.html).
Instead of taking long-needed action to stop the carnage at the water export facilities, the Brown and Obama administrations, in the foot steps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are instead pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to facilitate the export of more northern California to drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species. However, if the state and federal agencies keep pumping water and killing fish like they have this year, extinction for these species may come much sooner!
The salvage data is available at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/delta/data/salvage/.
What can you do to stop the massive fish kill?
First, please contact John Laird, California Natural Resources Secretary, and demand that he take immediate action to stop the killing of millions of Sacramento splittail and thousands of threatened spring run Chinook salmon by the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources!
His contact information is:
California Natural Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653-5656
(916) 653-8102 fax
Email: secretary [at] resources.ca.gov
Second, take action to protect the Endangered Species Act and The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by going to: http://restorethedelta.org/take-action/current-action
danbacher by Dan Bacher
Legislation to ensure the state meets its goal of reducing reliance on fresh water from the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta watershed is on its way to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk, according to a news release from Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis). The State Senate late last Friday approved Wolk’s Senate Bill 834.
“We know that the Delta is failing because too much is being asked of this estuary,” said Wolk, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Delta Stewardship and Sustainability. “Many Californians rely on the Delta as a source of drinking water, for their food, livelihood, and so much more. This legislation promotes regional self-sufficiency and sustainable use of the Delta’s resources for the good of the Delta region and all of California.”
She said SB 834 would require that regions receiving fresh water from the Delta watershed must identify how their Integrated Regional Water Management Plans reduce reliance on the Delta. The bill uses these water management plans as a tool to implement a state policy, established in 2009, of reducing reliance on fresh water exported from the Delta.
“These plans receive the bulk of our state’s investment in regional water reliability, making them the ideal means of determining whether these investments are directed to the most efficient and strategic projects,” Wolk concluded.
The Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Club California and Solano County Water Agency supported the bill. The Desert Water Agency, East Valley Water District, El Dorado Irrigation District and Valley Ag Water Coalition originally opposed the legislation, but withdrew their opposition after amendments were made to the bill.
The bill goes to the Governor’s desk at a time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) initiated under the Arnold Schwarzenegger administration. The budget-busting canal would divert more water from the California Delta for corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.
Delta advocates oppose the canal because it would result in less fresh water for Delta fish, farms and communities. The canal’s construction would undoubtedly result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish species.
danbacher “Having grown up and formed our band in Sacramento, CA, where the American and Sacramento Rivers meet, we have witnessed the slow destruction of once-thriving ecosystems and we know there needs to be grassroots commitment to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable. Without this kind of advocacy we believe it is highly likely that California will lose forever this amazing natural resource,” the group stated.
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by Dan Bacher
The Sacramento region’s most popular alternative rock band, the legendary Cake, today officially announced its support of Restore the Delta’s campaign to protect the estuary from state and federal plans to take more water out of the estuary.
As a fan of Cake and its lead singer and songwriter, John McCrea, for years, I’m elated that the band is lending its name to battle to fight for the Delta’s imperiled fisheries, farms and diverse communities!
“Although we are only a rock band, CAKE is very concerned about the health of the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of both North and South America — the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,” the group stated on Restore the Delta’s website.
“Having grown up and formed our band in Sacramento, CA, where the American and Sacramento Rivers meet, we have witnessed the slow destruction of once-thriving ecosystems and we know there needs to be grassroots commitment to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable. Without this kind of advocacy we believe it is highly likely that California will lose forever this amazing natural resource,” the group stated.
“We strongly support the advocacy and outreach work of Restore the Delta,” Cake emphasized. “They are a coalition of Delta residents, business leaders, civic organizations, community groups, faith-based communities, union locals, farmers, fishermen, and environmentalists seeking to strengthen and protect the environmental and economic well-being of Delta communities. They advocate for water flows into the Delta so that fisheries and farming can thrive together.”
“Open Ocean Productions is currently finishing a documentary on the story of the Delta told by Delta people who work with the Restore the Delta Campaign. While the perennial fight over water in California has produced plenty of information about the concerns of corporate agribusiness, the stories of the Delta fishing and farming communities have been largely ignored. CAKE looks forward to the completion of this documentary because it finally gives the people of the Delta a chance to tell their stories,” the band concluded.
The band consists of singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi. Cake has been noted for McCrea’s sarcastic lyrics and deadpan voice, DiFiore’s trumpet parts, and their eclectic musical influences, including country music, Mariachi, rock, funk, Iranian folk music and hip-hop.
“Restore the Delta is moving to spread the word about why everyone in California should be on board to protect the Delta for future generations,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. “We are proud to announce that our local, national, and internationally acclaimed favorite band CAKE has joined the cause.”
Cake’s endorsement comes less than two weeks after a historic fundraiser for Restore the Delta was held in Stockton on August 25. The Restore the Delta Benefit, an event hosted by Dino and Joan Cortopassi and Alex and Faye Spanos that over 600 people attended, raised over $640,000 for the organization to continue its advocacy work on behalf of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fisheries and communities.
Cake’s endorsement is greatly appreciated by Delta advocates at a time when the Obama and Brown administrations are fast-tracking plans to build a peripheral canal through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), initiated during the Schwarzenegger administration. A broad coalition of Delta residents, family farmers, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, California Indian Tribes, grassroots environmentalists and environmental justice organizations is opposed to the canal because it would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish species.
The BDCP, in a classic case of corporate greenwashing, would remove vast tracts of Delta farmland, some of the most fertile and productive on the planet, under the guise of “habitat restoration” in order to deliver subsidized water to irrigate drainage-impaired, selenium-laced land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The BDCP would take good land out of production to irrigate land that should have never been farmed, as well as export more water to southern California water agencies.
Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, rather than doing the right thing and reversing the enormous damage to California fish populations caused by record water exports out of the California Delta from 2003 to 2006, have authorized the export of record levels of water to agribusiness and southern California this year while “salvaging” 9 million Sacramento splittail and hundreds of thousands of striped bass, Central Valley chinook salmon, steelhead, threadfin shad and other species in the state and federal Delta pumping facilities.
For more information, go to: http://overtroubledwaters.org/endorsements or http://www.restorethedelta.org.
Background on Cake (from Wikipedia):
Cake was formed in 1991 by McCrea, DiFiore, Greg Brown, Frank French and Shon Meckfessel, who soon left and was replaced by Nelson. Following the self-release of its debut album, Motorcade of Generosity, the band was signed to Capricorn Records in 1995 and released its first single, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle”, which hit number 35 on the Modern Rock Tracks music chart and was featured on MTV’s 120 Minutes.
French and Nelson then left the band, and were replaced by Todd Roper and Victor Damiani. Cake’s second album, Fashion Nugget, was released in 1996; on the strength of the lead single, “The Distance”, it went platinum.
Following a tour of Europe and the United States, both Brown and Damiani announced they were leaving Cake, which led to speculation about the band’s future; McCrea eventually recruited Xan McCurdy to take over on guitar, and persuaded Nelson to return.
Prolonging the Magic, the band’s third album, was released in 1998 and went platinum, having shipped over one million units; this was followed three years later by Comfort Eagle, the band’s first album on Columbia Records, featuring the single “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” which hit number 7 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Following a series of tours, including several versions of the Unlimited Sunshine Tour, the band released Pressure Chief in 2004, its second and last album on Columbia. After creating its own label, Upbeat Records, the band released Showroom of Compassion in 2011, which became its first album to debut at the top of the Billboard charts, selling 44,000 copies in the first week after release.
danbacher “This is yet another set of secret meetings just like the Monterey Plus Agreement closed door meetings in 1995 that led to higher water rates for millions of urban ratepayers in southern California,” said Carolee Krieger, Executive Director and President of the California Water Impact Network. “Do we really want to go down this road again? How long are we, the public, going to sit and take this?”
Photo: Aerial LANDSAT photo of the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge.
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Obama administration bans public from toxic selenium monitoring meetings
by Dan Bacher
In the latest federal attack on democratic process and transparency in California, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation barred downstream representatives from meetings of a group tasked with monitoring toxin selenium discharges from western San Joaquin Valley agricultural wastewater into the San Joaquin River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and San Francisco Bay.
Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), said the move came on the heels of a new U.S. Geological Survey study indicating that toxic selenium discharges into the San Joaquin River need to be up to 50 times smaller than the current water quality objectives. New federal documents also indicate toxic selenium pollution already exceeds legally safe water quality objectives in water below the federal export pumps in the Delta Mendota Pool.
The banned “non-persons,” including representatives from the Southern California Watershed Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Crab Boat Owners Association, Sierra Club California, Friends of the River, North Coast Rivers Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Salmon Water Now, and AquAlliance, filed a protest letter over the Bureau’s outrageous action on Wednesday, September 7.
“Late Friday, September 2, 2011, we were informed by Reclamation’s Chair of the Grassland Bypass Project’s Data Collection and Review Team (DCRT) that ‘outside observers’ will be barred from the meetings of these public agencies who oversee the monitoring of the GBP,” the letter stated. “This action seems arbitrary and designed to exclude those most impacted by pollution caused by the GBP—the conservation, fishing and community groups advocating for water quality downstream from the discharge.”
Why the exclusion from meetings?
“No rationale was provided as to why these meetings suddenly need to be held in secret, behind closed doors, excluding only selected members of the public, while others are granted access. For example, consultants for the dischargers, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, lawyers for the Grassland Drainers, and others, are given access,” the letter emphasized.
Pete Lucero, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, responded that the meetings that members of the public were barred from are not public meetings, but are “agency discussions” among scientists doing data collection.
“This is not a public forum,” said Lucero. “This is a deliberative discussion among the agencies and this is not the right time for public participation. Once we have a document that is ready for public review, there will be the opportunity for the public to weigh in with their comments, questions and concerns relative to the public document.”
However, Carolee Krieger, Executive Director and President of the California Water Impact Network, responded, “That’s BS because other members of the public are being allowed in. Why are they just excluding those whose interests will be hurt? What do they have to hide? What are they afraid of?”
Representatives of fishing, conservation, and community organizations were originally granted access to the now-barred meetings in committments made before the State Water Resources Control Board leading up to the granting of a decade-long pollution waiver for the San Joaquin’s toxic selenium dischargers.
“The Board granted the pollution waiver extension with the understanding there would be public participation in the monitoring process,” according to the groups. “This change in the participation policy alters a material condition upon which granting the permit was based.”
Secret meetings lead to disaster
“This is yet another set of secret meetings just like the Monterey Plus Agreement closed door meetings in 1995 that led to higher water rates for millions of urban ratepayers in southern California,” said Krieger. “Do we really want to go down this road again? How long are we, the public, going to sit and take this?”
“Nothing good can come of secret, closed door meetings that welcome polluters and exclude the public and victims of pollution,” said Jennings.
The San Joaquin’s toxic selenium disaster drew national attention in the early 1980s when toxic runoff sparked die-offs and grotesque deformities among waterfowl and other wildlife within the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, as exposed by US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and environmental hero Felix Smith, now a board member of the Save the American Association.
“Even though the poisoned ponds of Kesterson were buried in the 1980’s, selenium continues to pollute the waters and wildlife refuges of the San Joaquin Valley and the Delta,” said Krieger.
Selenium acts as a beneficial nutrient for humans and other animals in small doses, but can cause serious health problems or death in higher doses, according to the groups.
“Continuation of secret, closed door meetings, largely directed by the dischargers, creates a cozy regulatory environment where pollution impacts are thrust upon downstream users to treat and clean up,” the groups’ letter concluded. “In the case of selenium this will cause irreparable harm because of its bio-magnification throughout the food web of the estuary or to fresh water supply exports.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said she was “very disappointed” with this decision to exclude public input under the Obama Administration.
“Do I dare say it?” Barrigan-Parrilla stated. “Transparency on water related issues with the Obama Administration is no better than it was with the Bush Administration. This is very, very disappointing. As the Who sang, ‘Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.’”
The larger context: the state and federal war on democracy
The exclusion of the public by the Bureau of Reclamation occurs in the context of the state and federal governments’ war on civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, transparency in government and the democratic process. The exclusion of the public from meetings where decisions are being made that will adversely impact them are paralleled in the state and federal plans to build the peripheral canal through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), California’s corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and numerous other government boondoggles.
In the BDCP’s Management Committee, Delta residents, fishermen, family farmers, California Indian Tribes and environmental justice communities have been completely excluded. Their exclusion is no surprise, since the Brown and Obama administrations fear that they would question plans to build the peripheral canal (”conveyance”), a budget-busting disaster that would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species.
Likewise, the privately funded MLPA process to create so-called “marine protected areas,” in a classic example of institutional racism and elitism, completely excluded tribal scientists from the MLPA Science Advisory Team. Nor did state officials appointed any tribal representatives on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force until 2010, six years after the privatized process began in 2004 under the direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, one was finally appointed.
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.”
For a copy of the letter, please visit: http://salmonwaternow.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/USBR-Bars-Public-From-Pollution-Monitoring-Mtgs.pdf. For the press release on the USGS study and links to the report, go to: http://www.c-win.org/content/selenium-pollution-risks-drinking-water-and-wildlife-documented-federal-reports.html).
For more information, call Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 209-938-9053, http://www.calsport.org, or Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network, 805-969-0824, http://www.c-win.org.
EPA will propose new water quality criteria for selenium
U.S. EPA, on September 1, 2011, announced that they will propose new site-specific water-quality criteria for selenium that will protect fish and wildlife in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The new criteria will be based on results of scientific studies by the U.S. Geological Survey [http://www.epa.gov/region9/water/ctr/]
C-WIN’s analysis of the reports shows that the science provides the basis for a change in the water-quality standard for selenium from 5 ppb to less than 1 ppb, and for some species and hydrologic conditions, less than 0.1 ppb, which is 50 times less than the current 5 ppb. [http://www.c-win.org/webfm_send/188]. This change is needed to protect economic resources of the Delta Estuary and Bay including salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and diving birds.
“These scientific documents raise questions about the wisdom of letting the Grassland drainers continue to use the San Joaquin River as a de-facto drain and whether the existing Central Valley water quality selenium standard of 2 ppb for wildlife refuges is adequate,” stated Tom Stokely, a water policy analyst with C-WIN.
