Mike McKenzie
02-01-2006, 11:00 AM
For anyone who has not acted yet, here's another opportunity to let your state government know they cannot continue their present practice of destroying our fisheries with impunity!!
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Alert - 2/1/02
Allied Fishing Groups Engage Over SDIP
Allied Fishing Groups engaged on multiple fronts this past month publicly voicing their opposition to the South Delta Improvement Project. Below you will find a summary of those activities including a copy of the letter they sent to the Department of Water Resources and copies with letters were also sent the DFG Director Broddrick and Resources Secretary Chrisman.
You can be supportive of this effort by recalling that democracy is not a spectator sport and engaging the decision makers, including the Governor, is essential if we are to ever restore the estuary and its fisheries. Following the Allied Fishing Groups Advisory, you will find a letter to the Governor. You can use it to help write you own letter and send it both the Governor and the Department of Water Resources and do it today! The public comment period for the SDIP draft Environmental Impact Review/Statement closes on February 7th.
We urge you to ask the Governor to stop the SDIP and any additional Delta export projects until the ecology and fisheries of the estuary are restored. You can email the Governor by going to http://www.govmail.ca.gov where you can fill out the email form and send it to the Governorfs office. Or you can send a letter or card to him at:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governors Office
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
You can also call or fax his office:
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
The message is simple, stop the SDIP and any additional water export out of Delta until our estuary and fisheries are restored.
Allied Fishing Groups Advisory 1/31/06
Allied Fishing Groups Notify DWR of SDIP Opposition
Our Allied Fishing Groups have sent official notification to the Department of Water Resources that we oppose the South Delta "Improvement" Project. The letter below provides the general information of the letter but not its formatting. The letter is also attached for those of you who like a copy. Copies of this document have also been sent to DFG Director Ryan Broddrick and Resources Secretary Chrisman along with aetter urging them not to support the implementation of the SDIP. Perhaps our collective voice representing hundreds of thousands of sport anglers and commercial fishermen, will turn decision makers around?
This letter follows closely upon two public hearings held in Northern California where angling groups and anglers turned out and expressed their opposition to the project. Following the letter I have also provided you with a copy of the newspaper report on the hearing in Stockton. On behalf of the state's anglers, I'd like to commend all those who attended and spoke truth to the decision makers. Let's hope it did not fall upon deaf ears.
The Federation of Fly Fishers Northern California Council played a key role in the Stockton Hearing and turned in an estimated 4,000 post cards in opposition to the project. They plan to provide another 4,000 post cards to the Department of Fish and Game and the Governor. The California Striped Bass Assoc. is in the process of sending an estimated one thousand letters to the Governor expressing oppositon to any increase in Delta exports until the estuary and fisheries are restored to self-sustaining levels. You might recall that this is a goal the government promised the people of our state more than a decade ago.
Allied Fishing Groups
1360 Neilson Street / Berkeley / CA 94702 / 510-526-4049
Black Bass Action Committee / California Fly Fishers Unlimited /
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance / California Trout / California Striped Bass Association / Chico Flyfishers / Coastside Fishing Club / Delta Fly Fishers / Diablo Valley Fly Fishermen / Fly Fishers of Davis / Friends of Butte Creek / E.C. Powell Fly Fishers / Grizzly Peak Flyfishers / Granite Bay Flycasters / Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club / Mission Peak Fly Anglers / NCC - Federation of Fly Fishers / NORCAL Kayak Anglers / Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermenfs Association / Palo Alto Flyfishers / Pasadena Casting Club / Peninsula Fly Fishers / Recreational Fishing Alliance / Santa Cruz Fly Fisherman / Shasta Fly Fishers / SWC - Federation of Fly Fishers / Tracy Fly Fishers / Trout Unlimited of California / The Anglers Committee / Tri-Valley Fly Fishers / United Anglers of California / United Pier & Shore Anglers of Calif / USA Fishing / Wilderness Fly Fishers
January 31, 2006
Lester Snow, Director
California Department of Water Resources
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Our Opposition to the South Delta Improvement Project and the Draft EIR/S
Dear Director Snow:
Our Allied Fishing Groups want to advise you of our grave concern for the future of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and its fishery resources and our unanimous opposition to the South Delta gImprovementh Project.
The State Water Projectfs ongoing damage to the estuary and its fisheries has not been appropriately quantified by the environmental review process now underway by your agency. We believe the habitat loss and degradation caused by state and federal water projects and the entrainment losses of a vast amount of the foodweb and fish caused by the pumping of massive amounts of water from the south Delta are clearly tied to the long-term, disastrous decline of the anadromous fisheries of the Central Valley and the Bay-Delta estuary.
For nearly fifty years the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation have failed to sufficiently mitigate the impacts associated with the water development in the estuaryfs tributaries and export of water from the Delta. These exports exceed fifty to sixty percent of the Deltafs inflow. The CALFED program that was to address the decline of the estuary and its fishery resources has also failed to restore the ecology of the estuaryfs ecosystem. The management of the publicfs fishery resources at self-sustaining levels has not been accomplished. In fact, the ecosystem has not been able to sustain sufficient natural fishery production for a number of years for many fisheries including the winter-run and spring-run salmon, steelhead, and Delta smelt had to be listed under Endangered Species Act (ESA) to save them from extinction. Sturgeon have not faired much better and the publicfs once gworld classh striped bass fishery has been significantly degraded.
These declines have resulted in serious economic impacts to local, state and national economies at the expense of the statefs sport and commercial fishing industries. Economic losses are estimated to be more than $4 billion due to prolonged declines of the Central Valley's fisheries and are clearly related to water development in the estuaryfs tributaries and export from the Delta. Yet, this fact that is not dealt with in the draft EIR/S.
Recently scientists working with the Interagency Ecological Program documented a serious "pelagic organism decline" in the Delta that includes key fish and critical foodweb species. This decline has pushed the ecosystem to the verge of collapse. The SDIP has the potential to cause a collapse of this system and the publicfs fishery resources. While this may be the result of a complex interaction of factors, we believe the key factors are the long term cumulative impacts associated with water development and its export out of the estuary. Such impacts have not been given credible impact analysis for the past four decades. Should the draft EIR/S go forward, it must deal with these long-term cumulative impacts.
Our organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of anglers and commercial fishing interests, are unanimously opposed to the project due to its potential to exacerbate the egregious condition of the estuary's ecology and the continued decline of key forage and fish species. We urge the department to execute your fiduciary responsibilities under California law to ensure the protection of the state's fish and wildlife resources that will be impacted by this project. In our view, the only way to for you to do this is to withdraw the project.
The Record of Decision for the CALFED program required any increase in SWP export pumping to be conditioned on improving the Delta's fishery resources and ecosystem. Any project that requires significant mitigation to offset its impacts does not meet the intent of the CALFED Program to restore a healthy ecosystem and fisheries. Taking an ecosystem approach to estuarine management requires such a standard, which is the approach CALFED inaugurated with your agency's support. The SDIP should be required to meet this standard or not go forward.
SDIP's credibility was seriously damaged when the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce found the NOAA Fisheriesf Biological Opinion failed to meet procedural standards when it established that the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) for the state and federal water projects met ESA requirements for listed salmon and steelhead. Recently, a CALFED Science Panel found this opinion did not use the best available science! These are clear indictments of a biological opinion that must be rejected for its failure to disclose the probable impacts of OCAP. This operations plan opened the door to greater Delta exports.
and the feasibility of the SDIP. This is another subject not seriously dealt with by your agencyfs draft EIR/S.
The CALFED Program's Programmatic EIR/S has been found legally deficient by a court of law and in need of major revision to properly evaluate the environmental impacts of the proposed CALFED Program. Due to this, we believe DWR lacks clear authorization from our state legislature to move forward with the SDIP. Since the State Legislature has not authorized the project, we believe your agency does not have legal authority to move this project forward. We did not find this mentioned in your draft EIR/S.
Until we have reasonable scientific certainty regarding what is causing the estuary's ecological crisis and have corrected these causes, a moratorium on all new projects that will affect the estuary should be instituted. This moratorium needs to stay in effect until the publicfs fishery resources that have been impacted by the development of the estuaryfs water sources are restored to abundant, self-sustaining levels. Spending $110 million on State Water Project infrastructure that may well contribute to the estuary's decline will potentially strand millions of dollars on a project that may have to be replaced with one that can avoid adverse impacts to the estuary's ecology.
For all of the preceding reasons, instead of moving forward with the SDIP we recommend the following:
œ Withdraw the draft EIR/S and reduce export pumping to levels that existed circa 2000-2001 when the Delta smelt were on the road to recovery;
œ Institute a moratorium on new projects and increases in water exports until the estuaryfs ecosystem and fisheries are recovered and are maintained at viable, self-sustaining population levels;
œ Equitably fund programs that restore the ecosystem and improve its water quality as part of your obligation to mitigate for indirect impacts caused to the aquatic ecosystem and fisheries of the estuary by previous water development activities.
Sincerely,
John Beuttler
For the Allied Fishing Groups
cc: Ryan Broddrick, DFG Director
Mike Chrisman, Resources Secretary
Paul Marshall, DWR
The following letter can be used to help you write your own. Putting this information in your own words helps to increase its impact.
February ___________
Governor Schwarzenegger,
Governors Office,
State Capitol,
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
I am writing to you out of grave concern for the future of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and its fisheries. The productivity of a significant part of the foodweb in the Delta has collapsed. Many of the estuaryfs fisheries have also experienced a collapse including young-of-the-year striped bass and Delta smelt. Should this decline continue, the estuary that once sustained significant runs of striped bass, salmon and steelhead will be irreversibly damaged.
The collapse of these natural resources is tragic as hundreds of millions of dollars of public funding has been spent trying to restore the estuary and its fisheries. The economic consequences to the statefs sport and commercial fishing industries and the statefs tax base currently runs many millions of dollars annually. These are industries that have already suffered economic losses due to prolonged declines of the Central Valleyfs once world class salmon, striped bass and steelhead fisheries. Now your administration is moving to do greater damage and it must be stopped!
Your Department of Water Resources has announced their plan to re-engineer the Delta in order to export more water and address salinity issues in the southern Delta. Their plan, called the South Delta Improvement Project, could increase Delta exports by 25 percent! A decision to move forward with the SDIP in the face of a collapsing ecosystem will further compound the estuaryfs ecological problems and do irreparable harm to its fisheries.
Given that these projects export over 60 percent of the Delta flows now and that the state does not need to export more Delta water, I respectfully urge you to stop this project until the reasons for the collapse of the estuaryfs foodweb and fisheries are determined and these resources restored to self-sustaining levels prior to any consideration of addition diversions. One of the greatest estuaries in the world is in real danger. Please stop this ill-advised project and help save our fisheries!
Your Name & Address
To contact CSPA for further information, send your email to:
Jbeuttler@aol.com or call us at 510-526-4049
CSPA is a non-profit - public benefit organization dedicated to restoring fisheries and their habitat. We engage in variety of aquatic efforts and issues to ensure our fisheries have habitat they need to be self sustaining and to stay that way. You can support our conservation efforts by becoming a member. Donations are tax-deductible, greatly needed and most appreciated. Send checks to CSPA at1360 Neilson Street, Berkeley, CA 94702-1116. Membership starts a $25. If you are a member, then you know of the good work we do, so sign up a friend and help us restore our fisheries! Questions? Call me at 510-526-4049.
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Alert - 2/1/02
Allied Fishing Groups Engage Over SDIP
Allied Fishing Groups engaged on multiple fronts this past month publicly voicing their opposition to the South Delta Improvement Project. Below you will find a summary of those activities including a copy of the letter they sent to the Department of Water Resources and copies with letters were also sent the DFG Director Broddrick and Resources Secretary Chrisman.
You can be supportive of this effort by recalling that democracy is not a spectator sport and engaging the decision makers, including the Governor, is essential if we are to ever restore the estuary and its fisheries. Following the Allied Fishing Groups Advisory, you will find a letter to the Governor. You can use it to help write you own letter and send it both the Governor and the Department of Water Resources and do it today! The public comment period for the SDIP draft Environmental Impact Review/Statement closes on February 7th.
We urge you to ask the Governor to stop the SDIP and any additional Delta export projects until the ecology and fisheries of the estuary are restored. You can email the Governor by going to http://www.govmail.ca.gov where you can fill out the email form and send it to the Governorfs office. Or you can send a letter or card to him at:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governors Office
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
You can also call or fax his office:
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
The message is simple, stop the SDIP and any additional water export out of Delta until our estuary and fisheries are restored.
Allied Fishing Groups Advisory 1/31/06
Allied Fishing Groups Notify DWR of SDIP Opposition
Our Allied Fishing Groups have sent official notification to the Department of Water Resources that we oppose the South Delta "Improvement" Project. The letter below provides the general information of the letter but not its formatting. The letter is also attached for those of you who like a copy. Copies of this document have also been sent to DFG Director Ryan Broddrick and Resources Secretary Chrisman along with aetter urging them not to support the implementation of the SDIP. Perhaps our collective voice representing hundreds of thousands of sport anglers and commercial fishermen, will turn decision makers around?
This letter follows closely upon two public hearings held in Northern California where angling groups and anglers turned out and expressed their opposition to the project. Following the letter I have also provided you with a copy of the newspaper report on the hearing in Stockton. On behalf of the state's anglers, I'd like to commend all those who attended and spoke truth to the decision makers. Let's hope it did not fall upon deaf ears.
The Federation of Fly Fishers Northern California Council played a key role in the Stockton Hearing and turned in an estimated 4,000 post cards in opposition to the project. They plan to provide another 4,000 post cards to the Department of Fish and Game and the Governor. The California Striped Bass Assoc. is in the process of sending an estimated one thousand letters to the Governor expressing oppositon to any increase in Delta exports until the estuary and fisheries are restored to self-sustaining levels. You might recall that this is a goal the government promised the people of our state more than a decade ago.
Allied Fishing Groups
1360 Neilson Street / Berkeley / CA 94702 / 510-526-4049
Black Bass Action Committee / California Fly Fishers Unlimited /
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance / California Trout / California Striped Bass Association / Chico Flyfishers / Coastside Fishing Club / Delta Fly Fishers / Diablo Valley Fly Fishermen / Fly Fishers of Davis / Friends of Butte Creek / E.C. Powell Fly Fishers / Grizzly Peak Flyfishers / Granite Bay Flycasters / Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club / Mission Peak Fly Anglers / NCC - Federation of Fly Fishers / NORCAL Kayak Anglers / Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermenfs Association / Palo Alto Flyfishers / Pasadena Casting Club / Peninsula Fly Fishers / Recreational Fishing Alliance / Santa Cruz Fly Fisherman / Shasta Fly Fishers / SWC - Federation of Fly Fishers / Tracy Fly Fishers / Trout Unlimited of California / The Anglers Committee / Tri-Valley Fly Fishers / United Anglers of California / United Pier & Shore Anglers of Calif / USA Fishing / Wilderness Fly Fishers
January 31, 2006
Lester Snow, Director
California Department of Water Resources
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Our Opposition to the South Delta Improvement Project and the Draft EIR/S
Dear Director Snow:
Our Allied Fishing Groups want to advise you of our grave concern for the future of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and its fishery resources and our unanimous opposition to the South Delta gImprovementh Project.
The State Water Projectfs ongoing damage to the estuary and its fisheries has not been appropriately quantified by the environmental review process now underway by your agency. We believe the habitat loss and degradation caused by state and federal water projects and the entrainment losses of a vast amount of the foodweb and fish caused by the pumping of massive amounts of water from the south Delta are clearly tied to the long-term, disastrous decline of the anadromous fisheries of the Central Valley and the Bay-Delta estuary.
For nearly fifty years the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation have failed to sufficiently mitigate the impacts associated with the water development in the estuaryfs tributaries and export of water from the Delta. These exports exceed fifty to sixty percent of the Deltafs inflow. The CALFED program that was to address the decline of the estuary and its fishery resources has also failed to restore the ecology of the estuaryfs ecosystem. The management of the publicfs fishery resources at self-sustaining levels has not been accomplished. In fact, the ecosystem has not been able to sustain sufficient natural fishery production for a number of years for many fisheries including the winter-run and spring-run salmon, steelhead, and Delta smelt had to be listed under Endangered Species Act (ESA) to save them from extinction. Sturgeon have not faired much better and the publicfs once gworld classh striped bass fishery has been significantly degraded.
These declines have resulted in serious economic impacts to local, state and national economies at the expense of the statefs sport and commercial fishing industries. Economic losses are estimated to be more than $4 billion due to prolonged declines of the Central Valley's fisheries and are clearly related to water development in the estuaryfs tributaries and export from the Delta. Yet, this fact that is not dealt with in the draft EIR/S.
Recently scientists working with the Interagency Ecological Program documented a serious "pelagic organism decline" in the Delta that includes key fish and critical foodweb species. This decline has pushed the ecosystem to the verge of collapse. The SDIP has the potential to cause a collapse of this system and the publicfs fishery resources. While this may be the result of a complex interaction of factors, we believe the key factors are the long term cumulative impacts associated with water development and its export out of the estuary. Such impacts have not been given credible impact analysis for the past four decades. Should the draft EIR/S go forward, it must deal with these long-term cumulative impacts.
Our organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of anglers and commercial fishing interests, are unanimously opposed to the project due to its potential to exacerbate the egregious condition of the estuary's ecology and the continued decline of key forage and fish species. We urge the department to execute your fiduciary responsibilities under California law to ensure the protection of the state's fish and wildlife resources that will be impacted by this project. In our view, the only way to for you to do this is to withdraw the project.
The Record of Decision for the CALFED program required any increase in SWP export pumping to be conditioned on improving the Delta's fishery resources and ecosystem. Any project that requires significant mitigation to offset its impacts does not meet the intent of the CALFED Program to restore a healthy ecosystem and fisheries. Taking an ecosystem approach to estuarine management requires such a standard, which is the approach CALFED inaugurated with your agency's support. The SDIP should be required to meet this standard or not go forward.
SDIP's credibility was seriously damaged when the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce found the NOAA Fisheriesf Biological Opinion failed to meet procedural standards when it established that the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) for the state and federal water projects met ESA requirements for listed salmon and steelhead. Recently, a CALFED Science Panel found this opinion did not use the best available science! These are clear indictments of a biological opinion that must be rejected for its failure to disclose the probable impacts of OCAP. This operations plan opened the door to greater Delta exports.
and the feasibility of the SDIP. This is another subject not seriously dealt with by your agencyfs draft EIR/S.
The CALFED Program's Programmatic EIR/S has been found legally deficient by a court of law and in need of major revision to properly evaluate the environmental impacts of the proposed CALFED Program. Due to this, we believe DWR lacks clear authorization from our state legislature to move forward with the SDIP. Since the State Legislature has not authorized the project, we believe your agency does not have legal authority to move this project forward. We did not find this mentioned in your draft EIR/S.
Until we have reasonable scientific certainty regarding what is causing the estuary's ecological crisis and have corrected these causes, a moratorium on all new projects that will affect the estuary should be instituted. This moratorium needs to stay in effect until the publicfs fishery resources that have been impacted by the development of the estuaryfs water sources are restored to abundant, self-sustaining levels. Spending $110 million on State Water Project infrastructure that may well contribute to the estuary's decline will potentially strand millions of dollars on a project that may have to be replaced with one that can avoid adverse impacts to the estuary's ecology.
For all of the preceding reasons, instead of moving forward with the SDIP we recommend the following:
œ Withdraw the draft EIR/S and reduce export pumping to levels that existed circa 2000-2001 when the Delta smelt were on the road to recovery;
œ Institute a moratorium on new projects and increases in water exports until the estuaryfs ecosystem and fisheries are recovered and are maintained at viable, self-sustaining population levels;
œ Equitably fund programs that restore the ecosystem and improve its water quality as part of your obligation to mitigate for indirect impacts caused to the aquatic ecosystem and fisheries of the estuary by previous water development activities.
Sincerely,
John Beuttler
For the Allied Fishing Groups
cc: Ryan Broddrick, DFG Director
Mike Chrisman, Resources Secretary
Paul Marshall, DWR
The following letter can be used to help you write your own. Putting this information in your own words helps to increase its impact.
February ___________
Governor Schwarzenegger,
Governors Office,
State Capitol,
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
I am writing to you out of grave concern for the future of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and its fisheries. The productivity of a significant part of the foodweb in the Delta has collapsed. Many of the estuaryfs fisheries have also experienced a collapse including young-of-the-year striped bass and Delta smelt. Should this decline continue, the estuary that once sustained significant runs of striped bass, salmon and steelhead will be irreversibly damaged.
The collapse of these natural resources is tragic as hundreds of millions of dollars of public funding has been spent trying to restore the estuary and its fisheries. The economic consequences to the statefs sport and commercial fishing industries and the statefs tax base currently runs many millions of dollars annually. These are industries that have already suffered economic losses due to prolonged declines of the Central Valleyfs once world class salmon, striped bass and steelhead fisheries. Now your administration is moving to do greater damage and it must be stopped!
Your Department of Water Resources has announced their plan to re-engineer the Delta in order to export more water and address salinity issues in the southern Delta. Their plan, called the South Delta Improvement Project, could increase Delta exports by 25 percent! A decision to move forward with the SDIP in the face of a collapsing ecosystem will further compound the estuaryfs ecological problems and do irreparable harm to its fisheries.
Given that these projects export over 60 percent of the Delta flows now and that the state does not need to export more Delta water, I respectfully urge you to stop this project until the reasons for the collapse of the estuaryfs foodweb and fisheries are determined and these resources restored to self-sustaining levels prior to any consideration of addition diversions. One of the greatest estuaries in the world is in real danger. Please stop this ill-advised project and help save our fisheries!
Your Name & Address
To contact CSPA for further information, send your email to:
Jbeuttler@aol.com or call us at 510-526-4049
CSPA is a non-profit - public benefit organization dedicated to restoring fisheries and their habitat. We engage in variety of aquatic efforts and issues to ensure our fisheries have habitat they need to be self sustaining and to stay that way. You can support our conservation efforts by becoming a member. Donations are tax-deductible, greatly needed and most appreciated. Send checks to CSPA at1360 Neilson Street, Berkeley, CA 94702-1116. Membership starts a $25. If you are a member, then you know of the good work we do, so sign up a friend and help us restore our fisheries! Questions? Call me at 510-526-4049.