Residents urged to speak against Contra Costa Water District deal on Delta Tunnels, Wed., April 6

Restore the Delta says to tell the Contra Costa Water Board “Say no to back room deals that sell out Delta water quality for the region”

By Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta

The Contra Costa Water District Board of Directors will soon be reviewing the settlement agreement that they recently signed with the Delta Tunnels plan effort. The settlement drops CCWD’s protest against the tunnels plan in exchange for a separate pipeline to deliver drinking water to its customers. We are urging all concerned residents to attend the meeting.

This may be your only opportunity to register a public comment on how you feel about CCWD’s self-interested approach to secure a water supply at the expense of the community it serves.

What: CCWD Public Board Meeting

When: Wednesday, April 6, 2016, 6:30 to 9:00 pm. (Come at 6:00 pm if you would like to organize with us prior to the meeting)

Where: 1331 Concord Avenue, Concord   

The Contra Costa Water District is choosing to exchange its present contract for Delta water deliveries for an intake above the Delta that will remove even more fresh water from the estuary. This not only puts all other Delta communities at risk for even worse water quality, but also leaves their own customers within their own district with degraded Delta water for other uses. Additionally, their decision leaves the San Francisco Bay Estuary with degraded water quality which will negatively impact that magnificent ecosystem.

Contra Costa County residents recreate in high numbers in the Delta, live around its water ways, and have regular contact with the water.  Environmental justice communities and recreational anglers fish Delta waterways for sustenance and professional tournaments, and Contra Costa County farmers depend on quality Delta water for their businesses.

Furthermore, the impacts will be exacerbated for residents in Discovery Bay for all water uses — from toxic algal blooms to waterways polluted with salt, Selenium and human carcinogens. Reducing flow through the Delta will put the estuary in a state of “permanent drought.”

CCWD’s willingness to settle is an indictment of how bad the Delta Tunnels plan really is. The Tunnels Project will have egregious water quality impacts in the Delta. CCWD should drop the settlement, and rejoin the unified opposition to the Tunnels plan launched by the entire Bay-Delta community, not cut a self-serving back room deal!

Lastly, Restore the Delta and collaborating environmental groups have in the past supported an expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir (and an intertie between Contra Costa Water District and Santa Clara Valley Water District) as ways to meet water needs for the greater Bay Area.  However, we are reconsidering our support of such measures seeing that Contra Costa Water District would now become a party to depriving the Bay-Delta estuary of needed flows through the Delta tunnels project. CCWD is effectively transforming the expansion of Los Vaqueros from a solution to a tool of the Bay-Delta estuary water grab.

Read our opposition to this settlement here. If you have questions, about this alert, please feel free to call our office at 209-475-9550.  We will see you, our members, at 6 pm in order to organize before the meeting on April 6, 2016. If you cannot make the meeting, submit a public comment here.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Contra Costa Water District service area includes Antioch, Bay Point, Brentwood (portion), Clayton, Clyde, Concord, Martinez (portion), Oakley, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill (portion), Port Costa and Walnut Creek (portion). To find your Director on the Board visit http://www.ccwater.com/426/Division-Map—Find-Your-Director.  If you can’t attend the meeting you can also email your Director by visiting http://www.ccwater.com/416/Board-of-Directors . and clicking on their name and then link to contact them. Antioch is represented by Directors Bette Boatmun and Connstance Holdaway.


3 Comments to “Residents urged to speak against Contra Costa Water District deal on Delta Tunnels, Wed., April 6”

  1. Arne says:

    Not that long ago, CCWD got their intake moved 15 miles further east (paid for by the state) to get fresher water. Now they have been offered water from the upper Sacramento River in a sellout to the 5 Delta Counties and the City of Antioch which is the only city that has Pre-1914 Superior Water Rights to the San Joaquin River.

    Antioch and east county residents need to hold the CCWD Board Member accountable!!

  2. Waterwonk says:

    Once again Arne can’t get his facts straight. 15 miles to the east? you mean all they way to Stockton? Try 1.5 miles and the state gave a partial grant, the 75% was paid by CCWD customers. And CCWD asked Antioch what they wanted in the agreement while they were negotiating: Answer from Antioch NOTHING, we already have a settlement agreement and will renegotiate it ourselves, so CCWD required DWR to negotiate with Antioch as part of the settlement! Why don’t you bother reading the agreement first?

  3. Waterwonk says:

    On the article, according to Restore the Delta this deal makes it harder for DWR because they have to redo the EIR and restart and change the water rights. I think that is a good thing.

    As to the agreement causing degraded water quality: the fear has been with no pumping at Tracy and Banks, the Delta will stagnate because of the million acre-feet of polluted ag drainage that the Delta farmers spew in annually (along with more than half a million tons of salt, 4,000 tons of dissolved organics and who knows how many tons of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers). But the CCWD Agreement requires DWR to keep pumping in the south Delta so that won’t happen! YAY! all that pollution will still go to LA thanks to this agreement!

    You should be thanking CCWD for 1) making it harder to get the permits and 2) looking out for Delta water water quality for all users. That requirement is great news for the Delta, and ensures those horrible things that were feared won’t happen no matter what the SWRCB does.

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