The week that was, 11/21-27/2010
Posted on | November 28, 2010 | 4 Comments
A lead player in a massive Delta habitat-restoration project is quitting that effort, casting doubt on one of the most important attempts in decades to revive the West’s largest estuary. — Westlands quits delta habitat effort, Sacramento Bee, November 24, 2010
“We’re not going to spend another dime on this.” — Jean Sagouspe, President, Westlands Water District, Westlands district pulls out of Delta conservation plan, Fresno Bee, November 24, 2010
“Why would we spend all of this money if we were going to get less water than the status quo?” — Laura King Moon, assistant general manager for the State Water Contractors, on Westlands Water District dropping out of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Big player in state water plan pulls out, Contra Costa Times, November 23, 2010
“Westlands wants its supply guarantees before anyone else – that’s not how this process works. This is about saving the estuary from death. We could all march into this process and have temper tantrums, but that’s not going to get us very far.” — Cynthia Koehler, water legislative director, Environmental Defense Fund, Largest water district pulls out of delta plan, San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2010
To be sure, the sprawling farm district on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley still wants a canal to take Delta water. — Water District pulls out of Delta coalition, The Record, Stockton, November 24, 2010
Critics privately called Westlands’ withdrawal political grand-standing aimed at winning concessions on environmental rules from Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and possibly even federal regulators. — Largest water district pulls out of delta plan, San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2010
Westlands is throwing a temper tantrum? How fun. They’re stomping out of BDCP because an Interior official told them that they cannot be sure they will continue to get their record high water deliveries from the early 2000′s? Good. After that bullshit they pulled with Feinstein last year, I thought they should have been kicked out of BDCP. — A whole cartload of schadenfreude for me, On the public record, November 23, 2010
Thanks to David Zetland, who provided this link to Westlands’ letter to Interior announcing its decision to opt out of the BDCP. Lloyd Carter has Interior’s response to Westlands quitting the planning process for managing the San Joaquin-Sacramento Bay-Delta.
Warmest wishes this Thanksgiving to all readers of Chance of Rain with particular thanks to Westlands Water District, whose calculated hissy fit provided just enough material for a holiday stub posting. After many weeks of postponement and delay due to a house move and construction work, a full ‘Week that Was’ will return next week. For a full round-up of California water news, go to the steadfastly complete Aquafornia, the newsfeed of the Water Education Foundation, or to UC Berkeley’s On Water. For San Diego water news, try Groksurf’s San Diego. Or, for all things fresh water, do check in with WaterWired.
This post was updated 11/29/2010. The Westlands-Interior letter links were added.
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4 Responses to “The week that was, 11/21-27/2010”
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North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
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November 29th, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
Here’s the letter from WWD that Interior was responding to: http://www.kysq.org/docs/WWD_BDCP.pdf
November 29th, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
Thanks David. Have updated the post.
November 29th, 2010 @ 10:31 pm
I predict that most Western San Joaquin Valley farms will be closed down AND the smelt will be extinct before LA sees even a 10% reduction in its lawn cover.
Thus is the way of the world… for now.
November 30th, 2010 @ 8:31 am
It could come to that. This reminds me of an exchange that I might have read in a book of Gary Snyder’s poetry in which he was asked why one should persist trying to change something that is wrong in the face of overwhelming odds and he replied, “Character.”