Since the beginning of the year, Restore the Delta has written about the problems with Senator Feinstein's water bill (SB 2533) which will increase pumping out of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, for greater water exports to big industrial agricultural growers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. While the Senator touts that her legislation will not weaken species protection, broad consensus from large environmental groups to fishing groups, from Delta water agencies to grassroots campaigns, like Restore the Delta -- all who have read the bill -- is that additional pumping will place Delta fisheries in peril.
In February, after hearing that Congressman John Garamendi was supporting the legislation, Restore the Delta and a number of our colleagues reached out to Congressman Garamendi to express our concerns. Since then, we haven't heard a word back from him.
Yesterday, he introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives that is identical to SB2533. His bill is HR 5247. Read his press release. .
We are deeply disappointed that Congressman Garamendi, a resident of the Delta, and longtime ally, would partner with Senator Feinstein to support legislation that is detrimental to water quality, the aquatic food web, and the fisheries that we are fighting so hard to save.
It's time for Delta area supporters to tell Congressman Garamendi and Senator Feinstein that you oppose these bills as written because they are sacrificing Bay-Delta fisheries. It's time to tell them to STOP catering to Westlands Water District and other Big Ag interests that will not be satisfied until they can pump the Bay-Delta estuary dry. It's time to tell them remember where they come from and who they represented first. Do they really want the destruction of the Delta and the San Francisco Bay as part of their legacies as they near the finish of their political careers?
Here are their phone numbers!
Congressman John Garamendi: (202) 225-1880
Senator Dianne Feinstein: (202) 224-3841
Do you have a Twitter account? Click here to send a direct message to Senator Feinstein and Congressman Garamendi on these bills.
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State Natural Resources Secretary John Laird "aims to debunk myths while aiming to describe hard, even allegedly inescapable truths. Instead, he reveals the essential truthiness of the California Water Fix (also referred to here as “Tunnels”) project." Truthiness is not truth. Read our reply to Resource Secretary John Laird's recent hard pitch for the Delta tunnels at the Capitol Weekly Water 2016 conference via Maven's Notebook.
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