There is a new video out about the Mokelumne... it's an issue that is happening RIGHT NOW!
http://www.vimeo.com/4377762
Check it out. See what a beatiful place it is.
Take action at FOR's page.
Tight Lines,
Bjorn
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Peripheral Canal... let's be honest
The Peripheral Canal. let's be honest.
We are beginning to hear whispers, rumors and every now and then a confirmed account of support from environmental organizations for the Peripheral Canal. The PC has not been the core focus for Friends of the River, although many, many of the issues we work on mingle with the Delta and we have been party to some of the lawsuits that are helping to shape and frame the Delta debate. We'll also be very active in educating the public about the proposed Water Bonds. So, while the PC is not a central campaign, it is safe to say that those waters are our waters.
Let's be honest here. A PC only makes sense if there is more surface storage. "Surface storage" is the ambiguous way of saying "dam." That means, at the very least, an enlarged Shasta Dam that would eat up a protected section of the McCloud River in addition to parts of the Upper Sacramento River, Pit River and Squaw Creek (the rivers and creeks that flow into the existing Shasta Reservoir).
If you sign onto the PC, you are endorsing river destruction.
I, for one, am tired of the false choices being put forward. The Farms/Fish and Fish/People debates are contrived and deceptive.
The Delta exports don't provide the drinking water for 26M Californians, as is continuously repeated (even duping the good folks at my local public radio station). Sure, they provide some water, but not all of it and there are other options to provide drinking water. The PC is about one thing. it is about agricultural water use. I'm tired of hearing the only way to water our fields is to take the water from the Delta or build the PC. America, literally, was built by inventive people, entrepreneurs, people constantly looking for a better mouse trap. It's time we employ that same spirit of problem solving to our water future instead of looking back to 20th Century solutions. We know the true costs of dam construction now in the precipitous decline of our salmon fisheries. We don't have any excuses. Shouldn't we pursue every other avenue before we head down the path towards more river destruction and more dead salmon?
Let's also be honest about the PC's potential. It COULD be run well and it could reduce the negative impacts of Delta pumping. The problem is that with water in California the potential for good is often overwhelmed by the political necessities of harmful decisions. If the PC is built, water WILL be shipped south at times that more fresh water is needed in the Delta. It will happen and if you think otherwise, well, I have a great investment opportunity for you with Madoff Investments.
The overwhelming, crushing weight of history says that the PC will further harm California's rivers and our fish.
It is time for more honesty in our Delta discussions. Those coming out in favor of the PC need to follow that idea all the way upstream where it leads to the wet, hard concrete of new dams and new legacies of river destruction.
We are beginning to hear whispers, rumors and every now and then a confirmed account of support from environmental organizations for the Peripheral Canal. The PC has not been the core focus for Friends of the River, although many, many of the issues we work on mingle with the Delta and we have been party to some of the lawsuits that are helping to shape and frame the Delta debate. We'll also be very active in educating the public about the proposed Water Bonds. So, while the PC is not a central campaign, it is safe to say that those waters are our waters.
Let's be honest here. A PC only makes sense if there is more surface storage. "Surface storage" is the ambiguous way of saying "dam." That means, at the very least, an enlarged Shasta Dam that would eat up a protected section of the McCloud River in addition to parts of the Upper Sacramento River, Pit River and Squaw Creek (the rivers and creeks that flow into the existing Shasta Reservoir).
If you sign onto the PC, you are endorsing river destruction.
I, for one, am tired of the false choices being put forward. The Farms/Fish and Fish/People debates are contrived and deceptive.
The Delta exports don't provide the drinking water for 26M Californians, as is continuously repeated (even duping the good folks at my local public radio station). Sure, they provide some water, but not all of it and there are other options to provide drinking water. The PC is about one thing. it is about agricultural water use. I'm tired of hearing the only way to water our fields is to take the water from the Delta or build the PC. America, literally, was built by inventive people, entrepreneurs, people constantly looking for a better mouse trap. It's time we employ that same spirit of problem solving to our water future instead of looking back to 20th Century solutions. We know the true costs of dam construction now in the precipitous decline of our salmon fisheries. We don't have any excuses. Shouldn't we pursue every other avenue before we head down the path towards more river destruction and more dead salmon?
Let's also be honest about the PC's potential. It COULD be run well and it could reduce the negative impacts of Delta pumping. The problem is that with water in California the potential for good is often overwhelmed by the political necessities of harmful decisions. If the PC is built, water WILL be shipped south at times that more fresh water is needed in the Delta. It will happen and if you think otherwise, well, I have a great investment opportunity for you with Madoff Investments.
The overwhelming, crushing weight of history says that the PC will further harm California's rivers and our fish.
It is time for more honesty in our Delta discussions. Those coming out in favor of the PC need to follow that idea all the way upstream where it leads to the wet, hard concrete of new dams and new legacies of river destruction.
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