AquAlliance exists to defend northern California waters and to challenge threats to the hydrologic health of the northern Sacramento River watershed. We are prepared and willing to confront the escalating attempts to divert more and more water from the northern Sacramento River hydrologic region.
Irrigation deal’s water is trivial, precedent huge
May 18, 2013Redding Record Searchlight, May 12, 2013: Looking strictly at this summer, a proposal to sell a few thousand acre-feet of Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District water to parched farms in Central California, making up the shortage by tapping wells, will do trivial harm at most to anyone in Shasta County. But if you give them a drop, will they want the whole lake? The federal Bureau of Reclamation is working to smooth a series of water transfers, totaling 37,505 acre-feet, from water-wealthy Sacramento Valley irrigation districts to ...
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Help Us Raise $30,000 to Stop State & Federal Water Transfer Threats NOW!
May 11, 2013AquAlliance is preparing to challenge state and federal actions that are a direct threat to the economy and the environment of the Sacramento Valley. The Bureau of Reclamation’s Environmental Assessment (EA) and Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the 2013 Water Transfer Program reveals plans to export 190,906 acre-feet of Central Valley Project and State Water Project river water to buyers south of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. To replace the river water sold to desert agricultural operations on the west side of the San Joa...
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Owens Valley Disaster Could Be Sac Valley Future
May 9, 2013Owens Valley has been subjected to groundwater pumping and surface water diversions by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for a century, with disastrous results. As many of you are aware, there are efforts afoot here to take more water from the Sacramento and Feather Rivers and begin incorporating groundwater into these water sales. Members of the Owens Valley Committee (OVC) spoke at AquAlliance's November 2012 water conference, which provided us with a view of our future if we don't stop the State of California and the Bur...
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Bureau of Reclamation Releases Draft Environmental Documents on 2013 CVP Water Transfers for Public Review
May 7, 2013The federal environmental review for Central Valley Project contractors' water sales has been released. All of the sales include selling Sacramento River water and substituting ground water to continue growing crops in the Sacramento Valley -- ground water that growers don't need except to make extra money on water sales. The table below from the Environmental Assessment lists the participating water districts with water sale amounts in acre-feet. Comments are due by 5 p.m. on May 21st -- a short window. Glenn Colusa Irrigation District an...
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AquAlliance wary of water transfer deals in the works
April 26, 2013By Heather Hacking, Staff Writer, Chico Enterprise-Record, April 18, 2013: Butte Water District, with headquarters in Gridley, is negotiating to move 5,350 acre-feet of water through groundwater substitution. This means transferring surface water and using groundwater instead. Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, based in Willows, is also negotiating a transfer of 5,000 acre-feet. One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons, or enough water to cover one acre of land at one foot deep. Barbara Vlamis, a water watchdog with AquAllian...
Read moreWater Transfer Advances: Ground Water Vulnerable
April 19, 2013April 19, 2013: The Glenn Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) will sell 5,000 acre feet (A/F) of their river water allocation to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (SLDMWA) and pump 5,000 A/F of Tuscan Aquifer water to replace it. AquAlliance attended the April 18, 2013 GCID board meeting to oppose the groundwater substitution transfer. The wells were funded by state and federal grants with little environmental review because the stated purpose of construction was “research” to “test” the aquifer’s response to pumping. AquAlliance reminded the GCID board that their general manager, Thaddeus Bettner, promised the public that before the wells were employed to do groundwater substitution transfers there would be a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report/Statement (EIS/EIR) produced to analyze impacts and protect neighbors from a dropping and/or a destabilized water table (Tehama County Flood Control minutes 9/23/08). There has been no EIR/EIS drafted for the pro...
Read moreCalifornia voters, lawmakers have no say in OK of major river diversion plan
March 25, 2013See AquAlliance response to this article. by Matt Weiser (mweise@sacbee.com) Published Sunday, March 24, 2013 It may be the most ambitious habitat restoration project ever conceived in the United States. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan proposes to restore one of every five acres in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, breaching levees on some of the estuary's 70 islands to create tidal wetlands and marshes. It also proposes diverting the Sacramento River through two massive tunnels, 35 miles long, using three new intakes near Courtland, each nearly a half-mile square. The idea is to revive native fish species that are drifting toward extinction and protect a freshwater supply essential to the world's eighth-largest economy. No one knows for sure if it will work. Or if the estimated $23 billion cost will seem like a fantasy decades from now, when construction is projected to be done. Despite these high stakes, as the process now stands California voters will ha...
Read moreScope and impact of Delta twin tunnels is starting to hit home
March 24, 2013Click to see AquAlliance notes on this editorial by Stuart Leavenworth (sleavenworth@sacbee.com) Published Sunday, March 17, 2013 The late comedian Jimmy Durante used to do a Broadway shtick in which he led a live elephant down the street and then was confronted by a police officer. "What are you doing with that elephant?" the policeman would ask. Durante's reply: "What elephant?" As state and federal officials push ahead with their Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the unavoidable elephant in the room is the 35-mile twin tunnels they propose to build through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. BDCP supporters would prefer the media not focus so much on these tunnels. They note that the conservation plan seeks to restore 57 different wildlife species and create roughly 145,000 acres of wetlands and other habitat. The new "conveyance" system, they argue, would improve water reliability to areas south of the Delta and provide an insurance policy against earthquakes and saltwate...
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