Save the Delta and California Rivers!

The Delta Tunnels: the worst threat to Northern California rivers in history

[http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/PageServer?pagename=DeltaCanal]

"Dark Links: the MLPA Initiative and Bay Delta Conservation Plan" [link]

2013-12-09 "Winnemem Wintu denounce Bay Delta Conservation Plan as a death sentence for salmon, violation of indigenous rights" [link]

CAPITOL RALLY - SAVE THE DELTA AND CALIFORNIA RIVERS
[http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/PageServer?pagename=deltarally]:
Friday, December 13 at noon
JOIN US FOR A RALLY TO SAVE THE DELTA AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RIVERS,
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013 at NOON,
WEST STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL, SACRAMENTO (CAPITOL MALL & 10TH between L & N Streets)

Please join Friends of the River and our partners for a rally at the State Capitol to fight the proposed Delta Water Tunnels. Bring friends, family, and your neighbors to help show our united opposition to the Governor’s Water Tunnels. We expect this disastrous plan will be unveiled by state agencies on the morning of Friday, December 13. This unprecedented water and land grab, given the misleading title of “The Bay Delta Conservation Plan,” should be called the Bay Delta & Rivers Destruction Plan.
If these two huge, 25 billion dollar, 30 plus mile long tunnels are approved and built, massive quantities of freshwater will be taken out of the Sacramento River before reaching the Delta, only to be delivered to pumping plants in the southland, further subsidizing corporate agriculture and runaway development. The water to fill these twin monstrosities will have to come from somewhere.
The proponents of this tunnel vision will not tell us from where the water will come, but the facts make it all too clear – plans are underway now to:
* Expand Shasta Dam and drown even more of the Sacramento, Pit, and McCloud Rivers
* Reoperation of Oroville Dam decreasing cold water needed for fall run salmon
* Expand New Exchequer dam drowning the national protected Wild & Scenic Merced River
* Build a new dam on Maxwell Creek drowning the Antelope valley and prime ranchlands and family farms
* Build a new dam on the San Joaquin River drowning its last free flowing stretch in the foothills
* Restart the coalition to build the Auburn dam on the Middle and North Fork American River

However, these dams will not be enough to fill these twin tunnels and more will be needed:
* A new dam on the Yuba – Marysville dam could be built
* New dams on the South Fork American including a possible Salmon Falls dam, Trouble Maker dam, and more on the river’s upper reaches
* Several giant new dams on the Eel River could be taken off the shelf as soon as the protection for this river is rolled back or eliminated all together
* Dozens of new dams in addition to the above were once a part of the state’s plans – rivers all across the state would be drowned including the Trinity, Klamath, Feather, Russian, Gualala, Mokelumne, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Kern, Kings, and more…

We can kiss goodbye flows from upstream reservoirs for fish preservation purposes. We can kiss goodbye flows for anglers, rafters, and recreation. We can kiss goodbye thousands of family farms, ranches, family homes, and recreational cabins along our rivers. We can kiss goodbye 40 plus years of hard fought and successful campaigns to preserve free flowing rivers through both the State and National Wild & Scenic River Acts. Moreover, the taxpayers (you and I) can kiss goodbye hundreds of billions of dollars needed to build the legacy our governor wishes to leave us – his tunnel vision of completing his father’s almost identical Peripheral Canal plan that was voted down by the voters in 1982.
It is not possible to overstate the threat the Tunnels pose to all our California Rivers and the river conservation battles won by you, our partners, and Friends of the River since 1973. If we win this battle and stop the Tunnels, plenty of other battles will remain for us to fight. If we lose the battle over the Tunnels, we may end up losing not only the Delta, but also our cherished Northern California free-flowing rivers.
This day will not be the end in this battle. To quote Winston Churchill, this day will be just “the end of the beginning”….however we must stand our ground now, while we have a chance to halt this project. We must mobilize an army to turn out Friday, December 13. We must make our voices heard for endangered fish, for threatened wildlife, for our precious rivers, and for those who follow us…the countless generations of Californians to come.

SO, PLEASE JOIN US FOR A RALLY TO SAVE THE DELTA AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RIVERS
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013 at NOON
WEST STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL, SACRAMENTO (CAPITOL MALL& 10TH between L & N Streets) Questions email us at: [info@friendsoftheriver.org]