The House of Representatives approves a bill that overrides California's environmental protections and changes federal irrigation policy. But its prospects are dim in the Senate.

3/1/12

The House approved a bill Wednesday that rewrites two decades of water law in California, wiping out environmental protections and dropping reforms of federal irrigation policy that have long irritated agribusiness in the Central Valley.

The legislation passed on a mostly party line vote of 246-175 in the Republican-controlled House. But its prospects of becoming law are poor. The White House has issued a veto threat, and it is unlikely to survive the Democratic-controlled Senate, where both of California's senators have vowed to work against it.

"It essentially says farmers will get theirs and nothing for anybody else," said Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Despite the long odds, Republicans brought the bill to the House floor to highlight differences between the parties in an election year. Republicans contend that environmental regulations are killing jobs.

"The senators don't understand that they're going to put tens of thousands of people out of work," said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), who once brought a bowl of fish to a congressional hearing to argue that the interests of fish were being elevated over those of farmers. Nunes, the proposal's lead author, said he will work hard to advance the proposal, including attaching it to other legislation.

"If the two senators think they can sit back and do nothing, they've got another thing coming," he said. "Because there's going to be absolute hell to pay."

The bill, called the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act, kills a settlement that has launched one of the most ambitious river restoration projects in the West: the rewatering of a dried-up stretch of the San Joaquin River to revive salmon runs. It guts a 20-year-old federal law that set aside a large portion of federal irrigation supplies in California for environmental purposes and toughened the terms of federal irrigation contracts.

The legislation also rolls back fish protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to those stemming from a 1994 agreement between the state and federal government and it preempts California water law.

"Part of what it tries to do is turn back time," said UC Berkeley law professor Holly Doremus. "It's a remarkable overreach. It tries to give the irrigators everything. They threw all of the wish list in here."

The bill's passage highlights the growing influence of Central Valley Republicans after the GOP takeover of the House last year. The House Majority Whip is Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, a co-author of the legislation. Rep. Tom McClintock of Granite Bay is chairman of a subcommittee that oversees water policy.

Backers blamed environmental protections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the state's water hub, for a "man-made drought" that has cut irrigation deliveries, left fields unplanted and hurt the San Joaquin Valley economy.

"For too long this man-made drought in California has been ignored," McCarthy said during floor debate.

Aside from theU.S. Chamber of Commerce and national farm groups, supporters listed by Nunes were primarily from the Central Valley, including such agricultural powerhouses as the Harris Ranch and Westlands Water District.

Ten Democrats supported the bill, including Californians Joe Baca of Rialto, Dennis Cardoza of Atwater and Jim Costa of Fresno. One Republican voted no.

Cardoza supported the bill but said that "rather than doing the hard work of reaching across the aisle to craft a truly bipartisan bill that could have been signed into law, we have passed legislation that is unlikely to see the light of day in the Senate."

Opponents warned that if Congress overrides state water law in California, it can do the same thing elsewhere. "What happens in California won't stay in California," said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek). "This bill, if it ever becomes law, will ignite California's next water war and the fights will spread across the West."

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Humboldt County veterans to put last plank on historical boat

3/3/12

Two years after the Golden Rule sank in Humboldt Bay during a storm, the vessel that was once used to protest militarism during the Cold War is now one plank away from being watertight again.

After patching up two large holes on the starboard side, members from local chapters of Veterans For Peace will add the last plank — known in nautical terms as the “whiskey” plank or shutter plank — to the boat’s hull on Sunday. To celebrate this milestone, Veterans For Peace members and Fairhaven boat yard owner Leroy Zerlang will hold a fundraising party to complete the Golden Rule’s restoration.

Golden Rule project volun­teers hope to sail the wooden boat, which once carried vet­erans protesting nuclear test­ing, to other points in the United States, said Chuck DeWitt of the Eureka Veter­ans For Peace chapter.

But there is still a lot of work to do, he said.

“We’ve done very little on the deck, nothing on the cabin and nothing on the interior,” he said, adding that Golden Rule project volun­teers have been working on the boat for about a year and a half. “We’ve been limited by money, first of all. Sometimes months will go by when the group just doesn’t have enough money to buy mate­rial and pay for labor.”

In addition to patching up the holes in the boat’s hull, the group has started work on the craft’s foredeck, using heavy-duty laminated wood, DeWitt said. Much of the material used on the boat’s hull comes from Pierson Building Center and Schmid­bauer Building Supply. Figas Construction donated an excavator to pick up the boat from the beach near Fairhaven and move it to Zer­lang’s shipyard, DeWitt said. Zerlang donated the space.

“Without really putting out a penny, we got the boat moved up on the beach, lev­eled out and set out on some beams,” DeWitt said. “Tech­nically, we could put it in the water and it would float again, but we got a lot of work to do.” 

In 1958, Albert Bigelow — a former lieutenant com­mander in the U.S. Navy who commanded three combat vessels in World War II — sailed the boat with four crewmen from San Pedro, Calif., to protest nuclear testing in the waters off the Marshall Islands, located in the western Pacif­ic Ocean between Hawaii and Guam.

The boat was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard twice in Hawaii, and the Golden Rule crew was arrested before the boat could make it to the test­ing area. According to Zer­lang, who researched the boat’s legacy on the Internet after pulling it out of the bay, the Golden Rule was one of the first boats that started the peace movement.

“It was very much what Greenpeace is today,” he said. “It was so important in trying to stop testing for nuclear bombs back in the Cold War. It’s a tiny little boat with brave men who sailed to Hawaii.”

The Golden Rule showed up in Humboldt Bay 10 years ago as the property of a local doctor, Zerlang said. It sank in a big storm two years ago this month. After he raised the battered 30-foot hull from the bottom of the mari­na, Zerlang said, the boat nearly became firewood.

“If it wasn’t for her histo­ry, her very unique history, the boat would have been destroyed,” he said. “People have come from the East Coast to visit this boat. They come from Canada to visit this boat.”

Once the Golden Rule proj­ect finishes restoring the boat, local Veterans For Peace representatives will sail the boat up and down the West Coast, making ports of call wherever there’s a Veterans For Peace chapter, DeWitt said. The group will open the boat to visitors and use it as a platform for educating peo­ple about the hazards and dangers of nuclear warfare.

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Annual Aleutian Goose Fly-off and Family Fun Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, March 3 and 4.

The refuge will open early at 6 am both days and refuge staff will guide visitors to observe over 30,000 Aleutian Cackling Geese leaving their night time roost at sunrise. Fun, educational, family activities include making recycled bird feeders, painting bird silhouettes and stamp making. Bring a mug for coffee or cocoa. Meet at the Richard J. Guadagno Headquarters and Visitor Center, in Loleta (Hookton Road exit, off Hwy 101). Rain or shine. Info: 733-5406.

2/28/12

PacifiCorp says its ongoing conservation efforts reflect the energy company's dedication to the Klamath dams removal project. The recent approval of its coho salmon habitation conservation plan may highlight these efforts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service issued an incidental take permit Friday, putting into place a conservation strategy that will be in effect until the dams are removed. Coho salmon are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, and the permit regulates any potential harm to coho with habitat conversation measures.

Irma Lagomarsino, NOAA fisheries service supervisor for Northern California, said measures include projects that improve the complexity of the coho habitat by adding woody debris to streams to improve their survival rates in swift-moving waters.

PacifiCorp spokesman Bob Gravely said Monday that the plan does not directly relate to the dam removal but allows the company to have a permanent plan in place. The plan was an interim measure required by the Klamath dams removal agreements, which were agreed upon by multiple parties in 2008.

”This is great news for us,” Gravely said. “It settles this issue for the interim period.”

Lagomarsino said the permit is for 10 years, but if the dams come down, the permit would be moot. The plan was developed over the last two years and has been subject to environmental review and public comment through the fisheries service, according to NOAA.

”We're really excited that PacifiCorp is providing species conservation for the coho in the Klamath,” Lagomarsino said Monday. “A lot of hard work went into working with them, and we applaud them for stepping up and doing this.”

Under the terms of the permit, PacifiCorp will work with the fisheries service, the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to identify, select, and implement conservation projects. PacifiCorp will contribute $510,000 annually to fund projects to enhance coho conservation in the Klamath River below Iron Gate dam -- the lowest dam on the river.

According to NOAA, the company has already contributed $2.5 million in funding to benefit the coho since 2009.

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