AquAlliance Water Challenges Mount Two significant water projects are upon us. Both of them have the potential to inflict very serious impacts on the communities, farms, and businesses in the Sacramento River Watershed. 1) What the NorthState gained from AquAlliances water transfer lawsuit this year will be released before September ends: the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 10-Year Water Transfer Plan’s Environmental Impact Statement/Report (EIS/EIR). This form of environmental review requires more analysis and disclosure of impacts for a project – our attempt to force some honesty. AquAlliance sued the Bureau in 2014 because it and the state have been transferring water in 12 of the last 14 years, claiming that they were “temporary” transfers and therefore they only needed minimal or no environmental review. Our lawsuit changed that. Now we will have a 60-day comment period to analyze and comment on the large EIS/EIR. The 10-Year Water Transfer Program seeks to transfer up to 600,000 acre-feet per year from the NorthState to desert agriculture in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. The 10-year water transfer total is equivalent to what a city the size of Chico would use in 200 years! AquAlliance has been preparing for this challenge and we hope that all of you will support our efforts on your behalf. We plan to disclose all vulnerabilities in the EIS/EIR and prepare to litigate if necessary. All of the transfer projects documents will be posted at: usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=18361. 2) Glenn Colusa Irrigation District is pursuing a project that may add five more production wells to their portfolio, which would double what they have now. GCID is one of the older water districts in California with significant senior river water rights, yet that isn’t enough. They not only sell river water and fallow land for profit, but they now sell river water and pump groundwater to keep growing crops – double-dipping into a water source that they never needed until they entered the water market. Their 5-well project’s scoping comment period will start 9/29/14 and last for 30 days. There will be a meeting about it on October 7th at 6 p.m. at the Ord Bend Community Hall. AquAlliance exists to Defend Northern California Waters. To support our work go to: aqualliance.net/support-us/donate/ -- AquAlliance P.O. Box 4024 Chico, CA 95927 aqualliance.net
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 15:36:16 +0000
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