Huge Turnout Needed to Stop Big Ag from Killing Delta Fish!
by Dan Bacher
The Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee will hear AB 2336, the “striped bass eradication bill” sponsored by Assemblywoman Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), on Tuesday, April 13 at 9:00 am in Room 437 on the Assembly side of the State Capitol. (…)
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Striped Bass Eradication Bill to be Heard on April 13
March 17th, 2010Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative Officials Can’t Ever Get It Right
March 16th, 2010“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro,” according to the late Hunter S. Thompson. (…)
Senator Wolk slams “business as usual” Delta management
March 10th, 2010lois_wolk_299×297.jpg
by Dan Bacher
State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) strongly criticized the Department of Water Resources and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan for moving “full speed ahead” on the path to the construction of a peripheral canal even before the Delta Stewardship Council is appointed.
Wolk issued her statement following a joint hearing on March 9 of State Assembly and Senate committees on the funding and implementation of the 2009 legislative package on water.
“It is business as usual, and discouraging,” said Wolk, a member of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water, which convened the informational hearing along with the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife. (…)
Snow Water Content 107% of Normal – But the “Drought” Continues?
March 7th, 2010
Just when will the Department of Water Resources (DWR) declare that the “drought” is over? (…)
North Coast Enviros Blast MLPA as Evidence of Corruption Emerges
March 6th, 2010by Dan Bacher
John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, Mendocino County’s leading environmental activist couple, demanded that the Schwarzenegger administration stop the corrupt, fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative during their testimony before the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Coast Study Region on March 1. (…)
Groups Blast Westlands Attempt to Use Aqueduct as Sewer
March 3rd, 2010california_aqueduct.jpg
Groups Blast Westlands Attempt to Use Aqueduct as Sewer
by Dan Bacher
Every time that you think that corporate agribusiness can’t stoop any lower than they have already in their campaign to destroy imperiled fish populations and fishing jobs, they always manage to reach a new low in their race to the bottom.
In the latest surrealistic episode in the California water wars, Westlands Water District, the “Darth Vader” of California water politics, is now seeking a permit to pollute the drinking water supply for millions of Californians, according to a coalition of environmental, fishing and tribal groups.
“Westlands has proposed a project to discharge up to 100,000 acre feet of groundwater into the State Water Project California Aqueduct, a drinking water supply for approximately 20 million people,” revealed Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The CSPA and other organizations on March 2 submitted comments regarding Westlands’ proposed discharge and conveyance of polluted groundwater into and through the California Aqueduct of the State Water Project. (…)
Environmentalists, Fishermen to Protest MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force
March 1st, 2010
Environmentalists, Fishermen to Protest MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force
by Dan Bacher
A peaceful community demonstration and informational tabling beginning at 8:30 a.m. (…)
MLPA Stakeholders Draft Resolution to Address Disregard for Tribal Rights
March 1st, 2010by Dan Bacher
During a conference call/webinar on February 25, members of the North Coast Regional Stakeholders Group for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative agreed upon the proposed text for a recommendation to the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force on the topic of tribal uses of the ocean.
This is powerful, long needed language that addresses the disregard that MLPA officials and the state of California have demonstrated towards the traditional seaweed harvesting, fishing and ceremonial rights of California Indian Tribes since the process began in 2002 under the Davis administration. (…)
Leaping Steelhead Awards For 2009
February 24th, 2010by Dan Bacher
2009 was a year marked by an increased assault on California fisheries from politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, corporate agribusiness and southern California agribusiness.
The salmon closure continued on the ocean, with the exception of a brief 10-day season on the North Coast in late August and early September. (…)