Download Points of
Agreement HERE:
North Delta Community Area Residents
for Environmental Stability
“North Delta CARES”
Post Office Box 271
Clarksburg, CA 95612
March 16, 2009
POINTS OF AGREEMENT
AN OPEN LETTER TO NORTH DELTA COMMUNITY AREA RESIDENTS ON
THE BAY DELTA CONSERVATION PLAN. THE PLAN STILL THREATENS OUR
HOMES, OUR FARMS, OUR BUSINESSES AND OUR INTERESTS. ON
MARCH 26, 2009, AT THE CLARKSBURG MIDDLE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM,
BEGINNING AT 6:00 P.M., THE BDCP WILL PRESENT ITS PLAN AND ASK
FOR COMMENTS. THE LETTER THAT FOLLOWS WAS PREPARED BY NORTH
DELTA CARES TO PUT OUR CONCERNS AND RESPONSES ON PAPER TO
HELP YOU COMMENT ON THE BDCP. FEEL FREE TO USE ALL, SOME OR
MAKE UP YOUR OWN COMMENTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE BDCP
THAT NIGHT OR AT ANY TIME IN THE PROCESS. THANK YOU, NORTH
DELTA CARES STEERING COMMITTEE.
Yolo County Board of Supervisors Chair Mike McGowan, speaking for the
Boards of Supervisors of the five Delta counties, recently wrote in a
Sacramento Bee commentary: "Attempts to address Delta issues will be
unsuccessful without local involvement and ultimately without relying
on those at the local level to help make it happen ... We want the entire
state to understand that the Delta is not a blank slate. People live here.
People work here." We are those people.
We recognize that the water, flood protection, economic, and
environmental issues related to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
are substantial and complex. Although the state-led Delta Vision and
Bay Delta Conservation Planning processes held numerous public
meetings where Delta residents, business people, and farmers – some
living and working in the Delta many years – stated our concerns and
offered our knowledge, experience, and ideas to address those issues,
little of that input has been included in the state planners’ announced
solutions. Nearly all of their current plans are virtually the same as their
initial conceptual plans. So we repeat...
1) We support only export of water from Northern California and the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta which is in excess of the present and
future human and environmental needs of these areas.
2) We support expanded, additional water storage in Northern
California for wet-year capture of run-off water to provide for safe and
reliable through-Delta export.
3) We firmly support conveying export water using the present
through-the-Delta route, i.e. the Sacramento River and Delta channels
southward, to the state and federal water project pumps, as the most
ecologically and economically sound choice. We encourage
modifications to this conveyance that:
a) make water delivery more reliable;
b) make Delta levee systems structurally more sound;
c) protect listed fish species from endangerment from the project
pumps; and
d) continue to preserve and defend present in-Delta water
quantity and quality standards.
4) We support aggressive and continuing state-wide water
conservation efforts.
5) We oppose a "Delta Vision" that seeks the return of Delta lands and
hydrologic features to their natural state. We support construction of
fish habitat restoration projects and other ecological improvements,
provided they are based on sound science and situated on lands
currently in public ownership, or on privately-owned lands only with the
willing consent of the individual property owners.
6) We firmly oppose the use of an expanded "public trust" doctrine to
alter or abolish presently-held water rights of any type.
7) We cannot support new Delta regional governance structures with
the "coequal goals" of improving the Delta ecosystem and reliability of
water supply unless persons living in the Primary Zone of the Delta,
elected by Primary Zone residents, have seats at each decision-making
level. We strongly oppose any governance structure comprised of an
appointed and unaccountable body of members whose principal mission
is to advance the above-mentioned coequal goals without due
consideration of the effects of its actions on the lives and livelihoods of
the thousands who call the Delta "home". Us!
8) We support a third tri-equal goal to protect and enhance the social,
economic, and physical viability of the Delta, including:
a) Delta agriculture, and its supporting businesses;
b) Delta reclamation districts;
c) Delta natural gas industry;
d) Delta tourism, recreation, boating, and fishing industries;
e) Delta community infrastructure and services, including civic
organizations; fire districts, school systems, and communities
of faith; and
f) The present Delta levee system in its entirety.
In conclusion, because we maintain that those who live their lives
closest to the Delta's lands and waters make up its most passionate and
in many ways most well-informed stewardship group, we cannot
support efforts, whether intentional or otherwise, that lead to de-
population of the Delta, or large-scale transfer of Delta lands from
private to public hands.
Additionally, we firmly maintain that attempts to develop and implement
plans to "improve" the Delta's ecological health and water supply roles
will inevitably fail without ongoing, substantial input and support from
Delta locals at every level. We urge legislators, planners, state and
federal agencies, water contractors, environmentalists, the Governor,
and the public at large to recognize that natural systems, even degraded
ones, will not be nurtured through solutions driven by politics and panic.
We hope all those who read this will inform themselves of the latest
plans by the State of California and make comments on March 26th at
Clarksburg Middle School or later in writing or by e-mail.
