Funeral for the Delta Set for Tuesday, Jan. 24, 9:30 am Sacramento1

The Delta ecosystem needs our support Tuesday morning.

Conservationists, anglers, and Native Americans will hold a funeral for the Delta on Tuesday, January 24 in conjunction with a hearing on a plan to “improve” the ability of state and federal agencies to pump more fresh water from the Delta, while Delta fish populations and the estuary’s fragile ecosystem are crashing towards extinction. 

We need each and every one of you to come out for this event so that we can make a significant impact on DWR and the attending press.  Please come out at 9:00 am to begin the protest; wear black. We will have signs for you to hold as well.

WHEN:  Tuesday, January 24th
TIME:  9:30 am
LOCATION:  CBDA Building, 650 Capitol Mall, Sacramento   (Federal Building at 7th & Capitol)
 
If you have any questions, please contact Susan Hopkins at (916) 432-0265.

BACKGROUND ON DWR’S PROPOSED “IMPROVEMENTS”
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) are proposing to build barriers, dredge channels, and do other plumbing work on the complex Delta in order to increase the ability of the state facility in the Delta to increase pumping by as much as 27%.

Fed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, the Delta is the largest estuary in the western United States. Depending on the water year, somewhere between 40 to 60 percent of the Delta’s fresh water is already diverted by state and federal agencies and exported south to supply San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and Southern California cities.

In the past four years, four species of Delta fish have severely declined, along with the complex food web that sustains them. The threatened Delta smelt, a small fish native only to the Delta, fell last fall to their lowest number ever.

Government biologists and defenders of the Delta habitat agree that the Delta smelt and other fish species have been harmed by degraded water quality, exotic species, and massive fresh water diversions.  However, the government agencies are moving forward with the so called “South Delta Improvements Project” (SDIP) before on-going studies have identified the specific causes of the fish decline and proposed remedies.

Even state sources seem to indicate that increased Delta pumping is unnecessary. According to the State’s draft California Water Plan Update, California can meet water needs well into the future without taking more water out of the Bay-Delta Estuary. The Water Plan Update actually shows that water demand in California would decrease over the next thirty years if sufficient investments were made in urban and agricultural water use efficiency and reclamation.

DWR and USBR are currently soliciting public comments in response to the SDIP draft EIR/EIS and hearings will be held in Sacramento, Stockton and Los Angeles this month. Demonstrators, representing Friends of the River, Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Club, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, California Striped Bass Association, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and others will be staging a funeral for the Delta smelt at theSacramento hearing.