CA Green Party: Schwarzenegger's resurrection of an antiquated plan for the Delta
is the wrong solution for the wrong problem.
Green Party of California
www.cagreens.org
June 20, 2007
Contacts: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524
funking@mindspring.com
Dr. Bob Vizzard, spokesperson, 916.206 8953, thevizz@earthlink.com
Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 greenparty-press@comcast.net
SACRAMENTO -- The Green Party of California reacted to the
Governor's announced plans for a peripheral canal by outlining the basic
requirements for a sustainable water policy, and criticizing Schwarzenegger's move as a return
to old solutions that have been rejected in the past.
"We understand the Governor's frustration, but the Peripheral Canal does
not solve many of the problems of California water needs. While it would
seem to make it easier for managing water exports from the Delta, other
consequences are not acceptable," commented Green Party National Eco-Action
Committee member, Wes Rolley. "This would include a decreased flow of fresh
water through the Delta, an increase of saline water and the need to abandon much of the agricultural use in
the south, central and western islands."
Water policy in California, Greens charge, needs to be based on current
reality, not on some 19th Century idea of exploiting inexhaustible resources for unlimited growth. That current reality is the fact that the
state's major source of water is the Sierra snow pack and that itself is
being threatened by Global Warming, and the entire Southwestern U.S. has
sustained a 7 year drought. As a result, water use at its current rate is
not sustainable and any plan that does not include a reduction in demand
only substitutes wishful thinking for responsible action.
The GPCA has long called for sustainable water use. It's platform proposes
policies which "Preserve and restore the state's natural water features -
California's streams, rivers, lakes, bays, wetlands and groundwater aquifers...vital to achieving
sustainable use of state water resources."
"It makes little sense to provide subsidized water to grow federally
subsidized cotton in the desert, but that is what we are doing. It makes
little sense to irrigate crop lands containing selenium and allowing that
toxic water to drain back into rivers, but that is what we are doing,"
explained Rolley.
A sustainable water policy would, according to Rolley: Recognize that the
future promises a dwindling seasonal water supply; reduce demand for water
to protect that supply, reduce exports from the to preserve the lands
that are there, enforce current state and federal clean water regulations
to preserve the quality of that water, work with agricultural interests to
reduce demand including changing the types of crops that are grown, protect the 's current residential,
agricultural and water export facilities through levee improvements to avert the possibility of a New
Orleans scale failure.
Green Party of California
www.cagreens.org