State Water Resources Control Board - meeting Monday register and dial in and give your opinion

[JWR]

It’s clear now that the 2023 California salmon season will be closed. We need you to join GSSA in testifying at the State Water Resources Control Board’s “listening session.” They need to hear from the fishing industry and concerned Californians about the widespread impact of this salmon shutdown.

PARTICIPATE​

Date: March 27, 2023 (Monday)

Time: 1pm to 7pm PDT

Zoom registration link (to comment):

https://waterboards.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NfdOop6mRn6GLw32OuXo_g

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BACKGROUND​

The biggest single cause of this salmon disaster is the failure of the State Water Board to require river flows and temperatures to keep fall run eggs and juveniles alive. The big die-offs of salmon eggs and juveniles in recent years were not caused by the drought. They were caused by the Water Board’s failure to protect salmon during the drought.


The existing State Board standards to protect salmon in the Bay-Delta and Central Valley rivers were adopted in 1995. Those standards have failed dramatically - as the decline in salmon harvest and returns show. The State Board’s work to update these standards has largely been shut down by Governor Newsom. Instead, the Governor is promoting a “voluntary agreement” (VA) process. That process is run by the water users themselves. The fishing community - as well as the environmental, tribal, environmental justice and Delta communities - have been shut out of these back room talks. Not surprisingly, the water user “VA” proposal fails miserably to protect salmon.

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TALKING POINTS​

• The Water Board is the only agency with the legal authority to require temperature and flow protections for Sacramento River basin fall run salmon.
• You have failed to update your 1998 standards, and failed to require adequate flows and temperatures.
• This has led to the decline in adult salmon and salmon harvest. The current shutdown is your shutdown. You did this - through your inaction. So did the Governor, by urging you to slow down efforts to protect salmon.
• The voluntary agreements lack any credibility. They do not address temperature at all. They provide little new water for salmon in all years, and essentially no new salmon water in the driest years.
• The voluntary agreement process has been going on for more than a decade. It has failed. And, because the public is excluded from these back room talks, the process is fundamentally unfair.
• Describe the impact of the shutdown on you, your business, your family and your community. Take a moment to share personal details.
• We support the petition by tribal and environmental justice groups for the EPA to take over setting Bay-Delta flow and temperature standards. We agree with them that your failure to protect salmon and the Bay-Delta represents a civil rights violation.

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MEETING AGENDA​

1:00 – 4:30 PM

• Welcome and Opening Remarks – Joaquin Esquivel, State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) Chair; California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Leadership; California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Leadership
• Presentation on current efforts to update and implement the Bay-Delta Plan, including possible Voluntary Agreements to update and implement the Bay-Delta Plan
• Questions and comments from participants

4:30 – 5:00 PM Break

5:00 – 7:00 PM

• Abbreviated presentation on current efforts to update and implement the Bay-Delta Plan, including possible Voluntary Agreements to update and implement the Bay-Delta Plan
• Additional questions and comments from participants

 

[pudlduk]

Ok I’ll chime in here because I would like to get your view point on this topic.

The background says, “ The big die-offs of salmon eggs and juveniles in recent years were not caused by the drought. They were caused by the Water Board’s failure to protect salmon during the drought.”

With all due respect how was this not caused by a drought? If the water is not there, it’s not there. If the water isn’t cold enough in the reservoir after 2 years of drought you can’t make it colder. The reservoirs cold water pool was the worst I have ever seen it.

If the Bureau agreed to their standards of a Tier 4 water year, the water left Shasta at 50 degrees, left Keswick at 54-56 degrees. The flows maintained during 2022 year followed the proposed flows at roughly 4500cfs. This was coordinated with the NMFS BiOp and River Temp plan plus lots of other agencies.


What should they have done different in such a horrible drought year when the Reservoir’s water temperature is warm and the water just isn’t there?

What is needed to make the salmon flourish again?

I’m not trying to start a nasty debate. Just trying to start dialogue to see what other view points want when there are so many moving parts to all wildlife and humans. Lots of people and wildlife suffered this last year (or more) due to the drought, not just salmon.

I will be listening to the meeting as well.

 

[Tejas]

Water above the reservoirs was pretty much nonexistent. Makes me wonder just what did salmon actually do in periods of historical drought. I am guessing there was a time salt probably backed up to Sacramento.

 

[Speckslayer]

Kudos to Pudlduk and Tejas for logical questions instead of just jumping on the bandwagon.

Too often, people have an agenda and will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want no mater the consequences or what the facts say. Below are some excerpts from a speech given by Tom Birmingham recently. I know many of you think he's the devil for all the water deals he did at Westlands and that's fine but read what he said below. There's plenty of fraud/deceit on BOTH sides.

"My first observation is that in four decades, at least in California, virtually nothing has improved. In fact, regardless of your perspective, things have gotten worse. Whether you’re interested in protecting and enhancing the environment or interested is in restoring and improving water supply, conditions have deteriorated. ... The reasons for these trends are numerous, but from a water policy perspective a fundamental impediment is that too few people are willing to have an honest dialogue."

"The response of some is truly remarkable. Uniformly, everyone with whom I spoke thought this was a good idea, but for many it was not something they could advocate because it was not in line with the position of their environmental base"

I once had the opportunity to cross-examine a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who had conducted an analysis he claimed demonstrated a significantly significant relationship between rates of water pumping at the CVP and SWP southern Delta pumping plants and the success of San Joaquin River salmon escapement. This was contrary to everything that I had ever read, so I sent his analysis to an expert statistician for review. After a short time, the expert contacted me, and excitedly said, “Tom, you won’t believe what this guy did. His report shows that he did a regression analysis and it showed there was not a statistically significant relationship, so he changed the P factor. He did this repeatedly, until his analysis showed the existence of a relationship.”

"On cross-examination the federal biologist acknowledged he had done multiple regression analyses using different P factors until a relationship had been demonstrated, but he was unapologetic. He said common sense compelled the conclusion; more pumping would reduce salmon escapement."

You can see the full story here: https://waterwrights.net/tom-birmingham-address-family-farm-alliance-february-24-2023/

 

[California Flyway]

If folks think Tom Birmingham and his employer Westlands Water District are such exemplary "truth speakers" you do not know their history of damaging the Trinity River. The Courts are not buying their "truths" and you should not either.
Under ongoing water management in the Sacramento River watershed, every year is a drought year for salmon.

If so much water is being "wasted" pushing to the Pacific Ocean, why has the salt water been steadily moving higher and higher upriver?

When that saltwater creeps close to AG diversions it sets their hair on fire, saying something must be done to stop it (that of course should not involve sending more water from storage to hold the salt at bay).

What happened to the once magnificent freshwater bay delta habitats?

"Acknowledging the water quality objectives were insufficient to protect beneficial uses as required, in 2009, the State Water Board initiated the update process for the Bay Delta Plan.

Nearly 14 years later, the State Water Board is still working on the update."

STATE WATER BOARD: Update on the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan

Best case scenario has adoption of updated Sacramento River objectives and implementation of San Joaquin River flow objectives in 2024 The San Francisco Bay/Sa

mavensnotebook.com

 

[Speckslayer]

If folks think Tom Birmingham and his employer Westlands Water District are such exemplary "truth speakers" you do not know their history of damaging the Trinity River. The Courts are not buying their "truths" and you should not either.
Under ongoing water management in the Sacramento River watershed, every year is a drought year for salmon. Really? This year is a drought year?

If so much water is being "wasted" pushing to the Pacific Ocean, why has the salt water been steadily moving higher and higher upriver? Uh, because of the drought

When that saltwater creeps close to AG diversions it sets their hair on fire, saying something must be done to stop it (that of course should not involve sending more water from storage to hold the salt at bay).

What happened to the once magnificent freshwater bay delta habitats? A population of 50,000,000 people that put in dams to stop flooding and grow food, channelization of the river, levies around the delta islands, and cities dumping sewage into it.

"Acknowledging the water quality objectives were insufficient to protect beneficial uses as required, in 2009, the State Water Board initiated the update process for the Bay Delta Plan.

Nearly 14 years later, the State Water Board is still working on the update." Why is this taking so long? I know that part of it has to do with the sue happy enviros. So here we sit 14 years later unable to get anything done!

STATE WATER BOARD: Update on the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan

Best case scenario has adoption of updated Sacramento River objectives and implementation of San Joaquin River flow objectives in 2024 The San Francisco Bay/Sa

mavensnotebook.com

Are you willing to discuss the problems with your biologists who have preconceived outcomes and continually change their models until it fits what they want and call it "Science"?

 

[JWR]

Only have a minute to respond to the legitimate and couteous questions. 1st off is almonds, Based on the California almond industry's own reports as of 2021 there were 1,323,222 acres of 'bearing' (meaning producing) of almonds. This is up from 36,063 acres of bearing almond orchards in 1984. A 36 fold increase.

Every almond produced takes 1 gallon of water. Last year there was already one year's worth of crops in storage because they couldn't export.

 

[California Flyway]

Speckslayer, why was there massive expansion of Almond and Pistachio plantings all through the drought.
Does Westlands employ folks that know what a drought is or do they consider droughts are for Salmon and little people?

 

[Speckslayer]

Speckslayer, why was there massive expansion of Almond and Pistachio plantings all through the drought.
Does Westlands employ folks that know what a drought is or do they consider droughts are for Salmon and little people?

Play fair! I answered your first questions already. Answer mine and then I'll reply to this one.

 

[Speckslayer]

Only have a minute to respond to the legitimate and couteous questions. 1st off is almonds, Based on the California almond industry's own reports as of 2021 there were 1,323,222 acres of 'bearing' (meaning producing) of almonds. This is up from 36,063 acres of bearing almond orchards in 1984. A 36 fold increase.

Every almond produced takes 1 gallon of water. Last year there was already one year's worth of crops in storage because they couldn't export.

1 gallon of water per almond is a very misleading statistic. It does take about 1 gallon of water to grow one almond, but it's not just about the nut. One acre of almonds produces about 2,500 pounds of nuts but it also produces about 5,000 pounds of cattle feed (hulls) and 1,600 pounds of shells that are used as feed, dairy bedding, biofuel, and a host of other options.