Our responses to Gov. Brown on drought barriers and renaming of “tunnels” to “pipes”

Tags

Top Highlights

• y responded to Gov. Brown’s continued advocacy of his tunnels. “In addressing Sacramento business leaders yesterday, Governor Brown said that he is now going to call the Delta tunnels, pipes, because pipes are more popular. His reference here to pipes, and his entire talk on the tunnels, echoes the message created by Californians for Water Security — a special interest campaign initiated by Stewart Resnick’s Paramount Farms. The strategy of Californians for Water Security and the new California Water Fix is to take Californians’ real concerns about our need to fix our leaky water mains and aging urban infrastructure in earthquake prone places like Los Angeles and wrap those fears into the Delta project to divert the Sacramento River from the Bay-Delta estuary, depriving the Delta of its primary freshwater source,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, executive director of Restore the Delta.

• They will not provide urban residents with any additional water, but they will ensure that the mega growers like Stewart Resnick and those in Westlands who can spend millions on lobbyists and misleading messaging campaigns get the water they want to grow almonds on drainage impaired lands in the desert. It’s time for Governor Brown to stop carrying water for special interests and to show leadership in creating water programs that benefit ALL Californians.

• “Whether it’s a peripheral canal, twin tunnels, or now pipes, it’s the same old project. Changing the lipstick shade one puts on a pig, doesn’t make the pig any more attractive,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “The Delta canals/tunnels/pipes will destroy the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas. They will ruin the environment and economy for the 4 million residents of the Delta counties. They will finish off our salmon runs and other native fish species which are barely hanging on from years of over pumping. They will become financial burdens for water rate payers and property tax payers in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. They will leave the 500,000 customers of the Contra Costa Water District with drinking water that will not meet Clean Water Act standards. They will ruin the $5.2 billion annual family farm community