The latest shenanigans

By now, we all know that Governor Brown will soon announce a plan to build a tunnel under the Delta and worry about habitat later. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), on which $250 million has already been spent, is trailing along behind, with the document itself and an environmental impact report to be published in September.

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Metropolitan Water District staff told the MWD board that choice of whether to build a canal, and how big, was going to have to be a policy decision made by Brown, Resources Secretary John Laird, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. They said the science was just too uncertain: How can we know what the environment will look like in 12 years? Well, we do have a pretty good idea of how much water the Delta will need. Almost 2 years ago, in July 2010, the Water Board published flow criteria for healthy habitat for fish. Exporters just don't like what the Water Board recommended.

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The Little Hoover Commission recommended that the Legislature approve Governor Brown's proposal to move the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) under the umbrella of the Natural Resources Agency. They call for preserving the independence and credibility of the DSC, but the change will make it just another state agency.

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Assembly member Bill Berryhill's bill sensibly calling for an independent cost-benefit analysis of the tunnel project failed to clear the Assembly Appropriations Committee.   That's probably because the chair of the Appropriations Committee is Southern California Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes. Nothing gets out of Appropriations if the Chair doesn't put it forward.

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The final draft of the Delta Plan is missing language requested by in-Delta interests that would allow Delta reclamation districts to continue maintaining Delta levees without being subject to "covered actions" requirements. When this omission was called to their attention, staff agreed to put the language in, but only for levee maintenance at the most basic level. No real improvements allowed.

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At a Delta Science Program Brown Bag lunch meeting last week, Dr. Adrian Vogl of the Natural Capital Project at The Nature Conservancy made a presentation on prioritizing conservation and assessing trade-offs in ecosystem services across landscapes. This is done with modeling, and it could be used against farming and for fallowing or habitat. So we'll need to keep an eye on that.

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On June 5, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) will hold one of its periodic Ask-the-Folks-Who'll-Give-You-the-Answers-You-Want events funded by S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation. The event coincides with the release of a new report, Water and the California Economy. Included on the agenda are Reducing Vulnerability to Water Supply Interruptions, Improving Flexibility through Water Marketing and Banking (with a panelist from Paramount Farming Company!), and Filling Funding Gaps.

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