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Schwarzenegger Administration Will Begin Drilling for Peripheral Canal

by Dan Bacher

July 18, 2009 -- The State Department of Water Resources is planning to begin drilling into river bottoms of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta next month to obtain information for proposed intake structures and tunnels for the peripheral canal.
 
Although state officials claim the drilling is necessary for the state to evaluate different conveyance options under the controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), fishermen, farmers and environmentalists see the plan to drill as laying the groundwork for the peripheral canal even though the project hasn’t been authorized or funded yet.
 
“We’re not building a canal intake now,” said Matt Notley, spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. “This is part of a survey process we’ve done for several months on land as part of the environmental review under the BDCP.”
 
Notley said the Department would be studying in-water soil samples at 16 proposed intake locations under consideration on the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Mokelumne Rivers. A lot of the drilling will occur on the Sacramento between Freeport and Walnut Grove, the approximate area where the canal would begin.
 
“None of the impact analysis itself has begun,” he stated. “All of this preliminary data gathering will be used to do the impact analysis begins.”
 
He claimed that to conduct an appropriate impact analysis for the series of conveyance options proposed under the BDCP, they need to obtain the correct and updated geotechnical data.
 
However, Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said it was “subterfuge” for DWR to start the drilling process for proposed intakes before it has been decided whether or not the canal will be built. 
 
“It seems DWR is saying to hell with the legislators, Delta farmers and fishermen by proceeding with this drilling project,” he stated. “DWR has decided to do the engineering work for the canal before the state has even decided to authorize or fund the project.”
 
“There is no question that DWR is out to destroy the Bay-Delta Estuary by proceeding with this project,” said Dante Nomellini, the attorney for the Central Delta Water Agency. “They have made the decision to build the canal and they are trying to portray a semblance of complying with the law.”
 
He criticized the agency for taking a “piecemeal” approach to avoid compliance with the different permits required from local, state and federal agencies to conduct such as project. For example, they are not getting permits from levee districts, even though there are undoubtedly impacts to levees that will result from boring holes to explore possible intakes for the canal.
 
Nomellini and John Herrick, lawyer for the South Delta Water Agency, in April filed a groundbreaking lawsuit charging everyone involved with the BDCP in violating numerous environmental laws protecting fish and wildlife and requiring adequate public input.
 
The lawsuit by Delta farmers contends that state and federal government agency officials, water agency representatives and non-governmental organizations have violated numerous provisions of the Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (NCPA), California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), NEPA, and the Bagley Keene Open Meeting Act.
 
DWR claims that the purpose of Bay Delta Conservation Plan is to “provide for the conservation of at-risk species in the Delta and improve its reliability as the hub of the state's water supply system.”
 
However, the growing coalition of Delta farmers, commercial fishing groups, recreational angling organizations, Indian Tribes and environmentalists see the canal as a water grab by corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin to increase water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. They fear that the canal will only exacerbate the collapse of Central Valley Chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, striped bass and other species.
 
Opponents of the canal should comment on and protest this process. DWR, the lead state agency for the “Bay Delta Conservation Plan In-water Geotechnical Drilling Project” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), has prepared a draft initial study and mitigated negative declaration. The public comment period is open through July 26, 2009. Comments can be emailed to mbeachle@water.ca.gov.