Disclosure notice: this post provides an 'incomplete' summary of the open session of today's meeting of the NAS-NRC Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta committee, on which I serve. I say 'incomplete' because I'm not a skilled reporter and wasn't taking copious notes (more listening than scribbling).
The meeting convened at the Le Rivage Hotel on the Sacramento River about 4 miles south of downtown Sacramento. Nice place; I have an extraordinary filtered view of Interstate 5 from my bedroom window. But on the other side of the hotel is a view of the mighty Sacramento River.
I thought I might be escaping the gloom of the Willamette Valley but we had rain today, unusual for this time of year.
Of course, the buzz was the snowpack in/runoff from the Sierra Nevada. Drought? What drought?
Heard dome people talking about NAWAPA. You want NAWAPA? Just do a search on WaterWired (left sidebar) for 'NAWAPA'. You'll get a bunch of stories I've done on the North American Water and Power Alliance. And don't forget NARA - the North American Recycling Alliance - or CRAP - the Canadian Resources Acquisition Project.
I asked fellow committee member KennyRose of LSU about any flooding in Baton Rouge. He said the Morganza Floodway did spare them, but that without that safety valve, the LSU campus was forecast to be under 9 feet of water. Hey, he's a fish guy!
Want a challenging job? The California Delta Science Program is seeking a scientific lead. Friend and colleague Cliff Dahm is returning to the University of New Mexico in a few months. Interested? See below.
Download Lead Scientist Recruitment Flyer_17May2011
Okay, now the meeting.
Gerald Meral of the California Resources Agency spoke on the revision of the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (here is our review of the BDCP) and how they are conducting an effects analysis and a 'no project' alternative - the project being a conveyance around or under the Delta. But he did admit they are doing some test borings that could be used to assess the feasibility of such an alternative, simply to have them should they decide to propose such a project. They are also looking at more storage - surface and subsurface - south of the Delta.
Karen Schwinn, Associate Director, Water Division,of EPA's Region 9 gave a summary of the agency's Bay-Delta water quality programs: selenium, ammonium/ammonia, pesticides, emerging contaminants, estuarine habitat, wetlands, and migratory corridors.
Next up was David Blau, a long-time water resources planner. He spoke on the art and science of integrated water resources planning under uncertainty and provided an example featuring the South Bay salt ponds. He noted that the South Bay case was several notches below the Bay-Delta in terms of complexity but that the same planning approach would apply. In response to a question as to why this transparent approach was not used more often, Blau noted that "decision-makers do not want to display their value systems in public." He also stated that it was important to "get stakeholders to look at things holistically." Too much myopia.
Wim Kimmerer of SFSU-RTC then gave a data-laden talk on changes in the lower trophic levels of the upper San Francisco estuary with some links to fish.
After lunch Phil Isenberg, chair of the Delta Stewardship Council and former mayor of Sacramento and state assemblyman, introduced a number of speakers who gave brief updates on the Interagency Science Program.
Several things stuck in my mind:
1) Chris Foe of the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board mentioned a "severe ecological collapse in the estuary" and wondered how much contaminants contributed to the collapse.
2) A questioner wondered why there wasn't more social science (economics, sociology) in the science program.
3) Chair Isenberg stated that when it comes to water, California has been telling its people what they want to hear about for 161 years.
The public comment session had several speakers, who urged that the problems not be shifted to the northern central valley, recollection of the Delta from a resident, et al.
Gratuitous editorial comment (sorry!)- Memo to California: Regulate groundwater withdrawals on a statewide basis.
Material from the meeting should be posted on the WWW site in a week or so.
Good day.
Tomorrow? Closed session to work on our report. We will have another closed meeting on 12-13 September 2011, probably in Seattle. A peer-reviewed, pre-publication copy of the report is slated for release in November 2011.
"A deal is a deal. If more water is necessary, the key to finding water is money. Everything is available for a price." -- Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, referring to the Bay-Delta Accord, 1994 (thanks to Mark Grossi)
Comments