Sacramento Rally to Save the Delta, Wednesday, July 25

For those of you who oppose the Governor’s plan to build a Peripheral Canal to guarantee more water for San Joaquin farming billionaires – and kill the Bay Delta Estuary in the process – this coming Wednesday, July 25, will give you an opportunity to have your voices heard with a large rally at the Capitol. 

We understand that the Governor and Federal and State officials will make their announcement, probably in Sacramento on that same date, to start building the Peripheral Canal.   We also understand that they will announce a new “process” to study how they can safely export more Delta water with their $15 billion project and still recover the Delta ecosystems and fisheries.  They evidently will try their best to hide their real intention to go ahead and start construction of two huge tunnels under the Delta to drain the Sacramento River.

How we got to this point is really strange:  After years of development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), the National Research Council of the National Academies, The Delta Independent Science Board, and the highly-regarded scientists from The Bay Institute weighed in on the required Effects Analysis document for the project.  Their verdict: the plan would hasten extinction of species rather than restore species; the document failed to meet the minimum standards for credible science; it ignored negative impacts, and it “cherry picked” data. Faced with this overwhelming criticism of their “cooked” science, the BDCP project went back to the drawing boards and came forth with the desperate scheme to build it now and figure out how to operate it later.

We have decided that it is critical to have a true grassroots citizens rally at the State Capitol on that day to both oppose this plan and at the same time to expose the public to the better alternatives that we advocate, which will truly protect the Delta and its fisheries.

So we are asking that you do the following:

1.      Show up personally in Sacramento mid day on July 25 to join the rally.  We will have a gathering point and provide information on the day’s events.  Here’s your opportunity for some real grassroots advocacy.

2.      Share this email as soon as possible with all like-minded friends and associates who truly care about our ecosystems and fisheries and who will personally demonstrate those interests at the rally.

3.      Let us know by email if you will participate; we will send those who respond more detailed instruction as to timing and event coordination.

We cannot emphasize how important it is to stop this enormous mistake that the Governor is planning.  The Peripheral Tunnel is unnecessary and will increase urban water rates while San Joaquin corporate farms receive most of the water through the new tunnels.  As presently planned, BDCP is not a path to restoration – it‘s a death sentence for one of the world’s great estuaries. 

Please plan to join us, and respond to this email to either Bill Jennings of CSPA/Restore the Delta (deltakeep@me.com [1]) or Nick Di Croce of the Environmental Water Caucus (troutnk@aol.com [2]).  A copy of Restore the Delta’s Media Advisory is attached.

We thank you in advance for your support and look forward to your being a part of this important grassroots advocacy event.

Nick Di Croce, Co-Facilitator

Environmental Water Caucus

troutnk@aol.com [2]

www.ewccalifornia.org [3]