Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

February 12, 2010

Snow, snow and more snow hit the Washington, D.C. area this week with the government shutting down operations after Congress left town to go back to their respective districts.  Next week Congress will be out of session for the entire week in observance of President’s Day, which is Monday. When I woke up this morning the country seemed to survive the government’s shutting down this week, maybe it would be good if the government shut down more often and Congress left town more frequently! 

News of Interest

Port of West Sacramento

I failed to mention last week that the Obama Administration included $12 million in its budget proposal for the “channel deepening” project for the Port of West Sacramento. If Congress includes this money in the final FY 2011 appropriations bill for the Corps of Engineers, it will be used to help pay for dredging of the ship channel at the Port from 30 feet to 35 feet. That project is estimated to cost $80 million and would open the ship channel to larger vessels being able to navigate to the Port of West Sacramento to load or discharge freight. This project is important to the California rice industry, the major shipper utilizing the Port’s facilities these days.

Delta Conveyance

We note today that a government panel involved in overseeing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has endorsed a proposal to study building a 43-mile underground tunnel to convey water from the Sacramento Valley around the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. This decision does not rule out building a “peripheral canal”, but the panel selected the tunnel option because they say a tunnel would be less harmful to wildlife. Municipal and agricultural water users will pay for the facility if it is eventually built. The cost for building a tunnel (in today’s dollars) is estimated to be $11.7 billion. A peripheral canal is estimated to cost as much as $9 billion.

Another Firestorm Is Brewing Over Water

The lead headline for an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle says “Uproar of Over Water Plan” details a plan being advanced by Senator Dianne Feinstein to attach an amendment to the fast-tracked Senate jobs bill that would increase “water allocations from 10 percent last year to 40 percent this year and next” for the San Joaquin Valley thru the Delta. According to the Chronicle, Bay Area Democrats are “livid, accusing Senator Feinstein of concocting the plan in secret, upending fragile water negotiations that Feinstein has supported and pitting California’s Central Valley against its coast.”

The article also charges that Senator Feinstein is doing this at the behest of Stewart Resnick, the well-connected owner of Paramount Farms, which grows citrus and nut crops on 118,000 acres in Kern County

Napa area Congressman Mike Thompson, a long-time supporter of North Coast fishermen was quoted “It seems to be a complete reversal of her position” accusing Senator Feinstein of “trying to spin this as a jobs saver, but that ignores the jobs up north that depend on water.” Contra Costa Congressman George Miller said “Feinstein’s amendment would suspend federal environmental laws that protect fish.”

Representative Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater defended Senator Feinstein’s move citing the dire water situation in the San Joaquin Valley that is continuing to deteriorate.

In a statement yesterday, Senator Feinstein said “that recent weeks of heavy rain and Sierra snowfall have brought snow packs to 130 percent of their normal level. At the same time, water has been gushing past the canals (in the Delta) and into the ocean while farms on the west side of the Central Valley are likely to receive a very low percent of their water allocations for a second year because that water cannot be pumped and stored.”

Senator Feinstein’s proposed amendment certainly will add a new “polarizing” issue to the Central Valley’s water war as it appears it will pit certain Bay Area Democrats against her and Central Valley members of Congress who are under great pressure to help get the water flowing again to San Joaquin Valley farms.

Pesticides Targeted

We note that the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson, Arizona based environmental group has filed a notice of intent to sue the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for “failing to adequately regulate nearly 400 pesticides for their effect on threatened and endangered species.”  The notice was filed on January 28th. The group basically is charging that EPA is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to consult with wildlife regulatory agencies about the impacts of the pesticides on hundreds of protected species. The center also charges EPA with violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by registering pesticides known to harm migratory birds.

This case will likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court after years of litigation!