The Environmental Water Caucus:
The Mission of the Environmental Water Caucus is to achieve comprehensive, sustainable water management solutions for all Californians. EWC and its members employ political, legal and economic strategies to restore ecological health, improve water quality and protect public trust values throughout the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta estuary and the Central Valley/Sierra Nevada watersheds.
The EWC was formed in 1991. Active members include most groups advocating for equitable and sustainable California water resource use.
EWC Concerns with Bay Delta Conservation Plan
The EWC has released a letter to Jerry Meral, the key executive in the California Resources Department responsible for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) -- the project that intends to build a tunnel under the Delta to increase exports to water users south of the Delta. The letter describes the numerous reasons that EWC member organizations are concerned with the impacts of the project and how it fails to meet legal requirements. The letter requests that the Department examine an alternative that would reduce exports and balance public trust values, and redirect the project toward more ecologically and financially desirable goals.
The EWC Alternative to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan
The Environmental Water Caucus has assembled the various recommendations we have made during the past year for the Delta Plan and combined them into a single alternative plan that we now refer to as the "Reduced Exports Plan". This Plan will continue to evolve as we learn more, and it will be the main thrust of our Delta Estuary actions for the future.
EWC Blasts HR 1837 with a letter to Congress
The EWC and 192 of its supporters joined a large chorus of organizations that oppose the so-called "Sacramento-San Joaquin Water Supply Reliability Act." This perverted legislation shows what supply "reliability" means to San Joaquin Valley agriculture. The bill would open the floodgates for water flowing south, and its author, Representative David Nunes of Tulare, has boasted that with this legislation a Peripheral Canal wouldn't be needed, since so much water would be redirected south from other users to San Joaquin Valley agriculture. Our objective is to stop this harmful legislation. See the EWC's opposition letter and draft and send in one of your own.
EWC Responds to the Delta Plan DEIR
In 2009, the California legislature created the Delta Stewardship Council to devise a plan for the Delta, that would achieve the
coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protect, restore, and enhance the Delta ecosystem. The Delta
Stewardship Council released a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on their proposed Delta Plan in November 2011.
Unfortunately, the Plan, and the DEIR are so flawed that the EWC calls for them to be withdrawn, rewritten, and re-circulated.
Even though the DEIR evaluated an alternative (Alternative #2) to the proposed plan that purports to be suggested by the EWC,
the Delta Stewardship Council loaded the alternative with so many poison pills that it might not be recognized
as coming from the EWC.
Some of the DEIR's most egregious flaws are:
- It perpetuates the myth that existing water exports are sustainable;
- It suggests that 'water supply reliability' is shorthand for a policy to increase Delta water exports;
- The proposed Delta Plan is patently inconsistent with the increased Delta outflows recommended by the State Water Board; and
- The Proposed Project does not comply with state law.
A Better Delta "Fix" Cost Estimate
The EWC has estimated the costs of proposed "improvements" to the Delta water delivery and eco-systems envisioned by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (which includes transporting Sacramento River water around the Delta for export through a canal or tunnel capable of carrying 15,000 cubic feet/second) at 60 billion dollars. This figure is more than 3 times the current Bay Delta Conservation Plan's cost estimate for "fixing the Delta". The assumptions behind the EWC estimate are described here.Water Use Efficiency and Jobs
A recent report by the Los Angeles Economic Roundtable found that public investments in water use efficiency projects stimulate economic activity that is twice as great as the initial investment. One person-year of employment is created for each $72,400 that is invested.California Water Solutions Now
California Water Solutions Now, Third Edition, is a game-changing report published by a broad coalition of 27 fishing, public health, conservation, environmental justice, and tribal organizations. It includes comments related to the state water policy legislation that was passed in November 2009 as well as further discussions of water supply options.
The groups have released this report to inform the ongoing debate about the methods for supplying water to the state, particularly in light of the $11 billion water bond that is scheduled to appear on the 2012 state ballot. The report, in fact, proposes water delivery and ecosystem recovery actions that can be achieved in a more fiscally responsible and environmentally protective manner than the proposed bond measure.
California Water Solutions Now shows that, with real reforms, California can have a sustainable water future.
Download a copy of the complete report, or a powerpoint presentation of the report.
Para descargar una version en espanol del informe que trata los problemas y soluciones del agua en la comunidad Latina, pulse aqui.
Current EWC Campaigns:
Urge your federal congressional representative to oppose HR 1837. This radical legislation would preempt state water law, eliminate environmental protections for salmon and other commercially valuable species, gut the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, and overturn the broadly supported, court-approved settlement to restore the San Joaquin River. This bill threatens thousands of salmon fishing jobs and communities in California and Oregon, water quality in the Bay-Delta, and the reliability of California's water supplies. (See Take Action for details)
Write to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to ensure that the federal-state Bay Delta Conservation Plan will recover endangered and sensitive species and their habitats in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. (See Take Action for details)