Beverly Hills Billionaires Bilk Bay-Delta, Taxpayers Too
Poor farmers, except Stewart and Lynda Resnick. The Contra Costa Times reports that in addition to owning more than 115,000 acres in Kern County and the largest pistachio and almond growing and processing operation in the world, the Resnicks’ holding company, Roll International, also owns Fiji water, Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, and Teleflora, the largest floral wire service in the world. Evidently that wasn’t rich enough, reports an excellent series by Contra Costa Times reporter Mike Taugher. The Resnicks have found a nifty way to profit from water, gleaning 20 cents of every dollar spent on Delta preservation — at the expense of the taxpayer and the environment. Taugher’s stories are linked below. If the links fail, you may need to register with the Contra Costa Times.
2. Paper Shuffle Allows for Easy Money
3. Pumping Water and Cash from the Delta
Bay-Delta Water Overcommitted Eight Times, Three in Wet Years
William K. Reilly, member of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush, outlines the crisis in the Delta in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bullet points from the article:
- The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta provides water for more than 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of agriculture, supporting a $400 billion economy. But the delta’s ecosystem is crashing.
- Delta governance is “the critical missing ingredient in water management.”
- The delta water‘s average annual flow is overcommitted to users by more than eight times. Even in the wettest years, the water is overcommitted by three times.
- The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force work concluded with the release of a strategic plan, but work continues under the banner of the Delta Vision Foundation.
He concludes, “On Monday, we will come together for a public meeting in Sacramento …
Multi-Species Act needed for Bay-Delta
SOMETIMES the comments to a posting are as important, if not more important, than the posting itself. When this happens, they need highlighting. This response to the May 21 news that protections for the green sturgeon may cause yet more pumping stoppages in the Bay-Delta falls in that class. It comes from Adan Ortega, Jr., a former vice president at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and now a consultant on Western water for the Los Angeles firm Rose & Kindel:
The possibility that protections for green sturgeon will follow those for the Delta smelt points “to the precise reason why California needs a multi-species plan for the Delta,” writes Ortega. “The idea that the Bay-Delta can be restored to a natural state is over 100 years too late. A species by species approach only helps a special niche of lawyers and lobbyists who represent cities, farmers and environmentalists …
Green Sturgeon New Smelt for Bay-Delta Pumps?
A federal biologist holds a green sturgeon caught and released in San Pablo Bay, Calif., in 2002. Photo: NOAA
THE SAME day that Central Valley farmers filed suit over pumping stoppages to protect the Delta smelt, the spectre of additional protections for another fish, this time the green sturgeon, rose from government scientists. Reports Thursday May 21 from AP and Fresno Bee followed today (May 22) by a better report in Aquafornia.
For the full story, go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announcement as to why its Fisheries Service “is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that generally prohibits acts that would kill or harm a distinct group of North American green sturgeon that spawn in the Sacramento River.
Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, this distinct segment of green sturgeon is found from Alaska to California but is only known to reproduce …
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