"Water Wars" In California Delta Prompts Grange Symposium
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, September 18, 2008 --- Two thirds of all Californians take for granted that the Delta will provide them with water. Truth be told, the Delta is an unsustainable and complex system of aging earthen levees with inadequate conveyance and storage facilities and can not faithfully meet those expectations.
Furthermore, unresolved environmental, recreational and socio-economic issues argued by stakeholders will take more than a plumber to fix.
Searching for answers, the California State Grange will hold a Water Symposium on the California Delta at 1:30pm on October 15. The Symposium will be held as part of the annual State Grange convention taking place in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn Northeast, Highway 80 at Madison Avenue.
“We have historic and on-going water wars between various lots of people who have access to Delta water for their own specific purposes,” explained Dave Lewis, Chairman of the California State Grange Water Committee.
“You can build all the dams you want,” Lewis continued, “but if you can’t get the water safely to people south of the Delta, you’ve accomplished nothing.”
In one scenario, an earthquake predicted by the U. S. Geological Service of magnitude 6.7 or greater will strike the Bay Area by 2032, destroying much of the Delta levee system and interrupting the water supply to millions of people for up to two years.
A distinguished panel of professionals and advocates are lined up to speak at the Symposium, including:
Rita Schmidt Sudman, Executive Director of the Water Education Foundation and editor of Western Water News and the Foundation’s acclaimed Layperson’s Guide series that identifies 15 Western water issues, Keith Coolidge, Deputy Director for the CALFED Bay Delta Program and advisor to Governor Scwartzenegger’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, Jason Peltier, Chief Deputy Director of Westlands Water District and formerly the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Water and Science at the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Mike Robinson, a Delta farmer and Chairman of the San Joaquin County Farm Bureau Delta Committee.
California State Grange Lecturer Buzz Chernoff suggests “The Delta problems are a matter of education. The majority of people in California don’t have an appreciation of what the water issues are. This Symposium will help us make informed decisions.”
Since 1873, the California State Grange has served the people of California by promoting agriculture, water conservation, safe food, consumer awareness, and renewable resources. Today the California State Grange has 10,000 members in 185 communities across the state.
Application for membership is open to everyone.
All interested parties are welcome to attend the State Grange Water Symposium on the California Delta at 1:30pm on October 15 at the Sacramento Holiday Inn North. For more information phone (916) 454-5805.