{"id":1225,"date":"2019-04-12T21:13:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T21:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tidsed.com\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2019-04-13T18:32:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T18:32:41","slug":"the-turlock-journal-local-legislator-calls-out-water-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tidsed.com\/?p=1225","title":{"rendered":"The Turlock Journal: Local legislator calls out water board"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Local legislator calls out water board<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Updated: April 12, 2019, 9:13 p.m.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"Assemblymember Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) chastised the State Water Resources Control Board yesterday for arguing that the harm caused by the Bay-Delta Plan to the drinking water of disadvantaged communities is not \u201csignificant.\u201d Gray\u2019s comments came as his legislation, Assembly Bill 637, cleared the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

In response to criticism that the Bay-Delta Plan ignores impacts to disadvantaged communities, the State Water Board issued a master response arguing that because the board is not a federal agency it does not have to consider impacts to these communities significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State Water Board should play by the same rules that the federal government has followed since 1994 when President Clinton issued an executive order prohibiting federal agencies from discriminating against and ignoring impacts to low income and minority communities,\u201d said Gray. \u201cAny rational person would agree that advancing a plan which devastates impoverished neighborhoods, degrades drinking water, and openly ignores impacts to some of the most vulnerable communities in the state should be against the law \u2013 but the Water Board is not rational.\u201d<\/p>\n

AB 637 requires the State Water Board to identify disadvantaged communities and mitigate impacts to the drinking water supplies serving those communities. The bill also requires the Board to hold public hearings in or near impacted communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took demands from nearly the entire delegation of Northern San Joaquin Valley lawmakers before the State Water Board agreed to hold public hearings on the Bay-Delta Plan in the impacted communities of Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin counties,\u201d continued Gray. \u201cIt should be the rule \u2013 not the exception \u2013 that impacted communities are able to make their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the new administration and our irrigation districts continue working towards securing voluntary agreements, this is a reminder of the distrust sowed by the State Water Board up to this point,\u201d finished Gray.<\/p>\n

The result of a nine-year process, the Bay-Delta Plan calls for increased allocation of 30 to 50 percent of unimpaired flows along the San Joaquin River and its tributaries \u2014 the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. The plan also makes allowances for reduced river flows on tributaries where stakeholders have reached voluntary agreements to pursue a combination of flow and \u201cnon-flow\u201d measures that improve conditions for fish and wildlife, such as habitat restoration and reducing predation.<\/p>\n

The San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, of which the Turlock Irrigation District is a member, filed a lawsuit challenging the Phase 1 of the State Water Resources Control Board\u2019s Bay-Delta Plan.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in Tuolumne County Superior Court, contends the State Water Board adopted a wholly different plan than it analyzed, violated state and federal due process laws and unlawfully segmented the environmental review of the plan, among other claims. The lawsuit, along with others, marks the beginning of a prolonged court proceeding surrounding the adequacy and legality of Phase 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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