![[Delta National Park] Home](/_assets/img/interface/dnp-logo.gif){kind=logo}
We-rest-our-case video of why the Delta is amazing.
Chad Manley recently completed editing this video of his/our January trip to the Delta.
The pure delta footage spans from 1:00-5:50min.
down on the delta. from chad manley on Vimeo.
What a strange and beautiful place!
Two ways of looking at wastewater contamination in the Delta
In a previous post the DNP showed how the Peak Water Studio (3.9MB) was speculating on how strengthening Delta levees could augment water-based habitat.
Despite ballast water depositing invasive clams (e.g.) from Manila in the Delta’s waterways, most of the Delta’s ecosystem problems are caused on land. Those involved in Delta-Cal water issues are familiar with the question of who is responsible for the Delta ecosystem’s failing state.
The answer is “pretty much everyone.” Discharge from urban wastewater treatment facilities ringing the Delta make their contribution.
Students in the Peak Water Studio looked at the question of wastewater in the Delta in two different ways. In the first, they simply mapped the locations, capacities and spills of the various water treatment facilities around the Delta. Stockton’s, apparently, is particularly offensive.
Students also developed a way to think about how Delta agriculture could treat its irrigation discharge water prior to pumping it back into the Delta’s rivers and sloughs. In this solution, 1/7th of each Delta island would be converted to bio-remediating water treatment landscapes, with the rest remaining as farmland.
The students further argue that the increase in habitat would strengthen habitat corridors and help stabilize the Delta’s land-based ecosystem.
Such a proposition provides a way to think of the Delta’s future in a finer-grained, finer-scaled way than does the future represented by PPIC, in which entire sub regions of the Delta are packaged together.
The PPIC’s vision is coarse if rational, a glimpse into the world view of the the New Orgman.
Mutually assured dysfunction 6: Paranoid-critical, Anti-government folks, meet California water
The DNP was very interested in reading the comments responding to the New visions for the Delta: A national park, perhaps? article in the Sacramento Bee.
As one might expect, a majority of commenters were opposed to the idea of a Delta national park. What is interesting, though, is the lazy dogma of many of the comments. It is an open question whether these folks have the capacity to express rational opinions or just opinions. The DNP could find only one rational (as opposed to ideological, interest-based) comment opposed to the idea of the park:
tomatoman1 wrote on 03/06/2010 10:58:03 AM:
Seems to me that bringing in more people, hotels and housing, and ferries is a bad idea in such a fragile environment.
This is an argument that the DNP respects and respectfully disagrees with. It is basically the argument put forth by the risk-averse, people like Jeffrey Mount at UC Davis and the PPIC’s water experts. The argument might be equally apt in the risky setting of cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles. Nevertheless, it is a clear, principled position uncontaminated by paranoia, NIMBY-ism, anti-government, or xenophobic irrationality.
On the other hand, there is the paranoid-critical stance. Embodying the surreal view of the real is DeltaGirl2 who, having found a DNP post to David Zetland’s Aguanomics blog, weighed in with this:
DeltaGirl2 wrote on 03/07/2010 07:42:38 AM:
“Don’t like overheated rhetoric on any side. My blog makes that pretty clear. Not a big fan of Restore the Delta, Dan Bacher, CSPA, and their nimby preservationist argument either. H**l, I even support in principle the peripheral canal, provided it can be proven to help stabilize the Delta’s ecosystem’s problems.” John Bass, aka deltanationalpark, found here: http://aguanomics.com/2010/01/farming-politicians-instead-of-crops.html It certainly seems like the “neutral” deltanationalpark prof. has a horse in the California Water Race.
Restore the Delta, Dan Bacher, and California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance work tirelessly to defend the Delta, endangered salmon, and to protect the community of the Delta. This past legislative session’s middle of the night passing of special interest water bills, and the $11.4 BILLION bond voters are going to be asked to ok (as if) showed how much Sacramento cares for Delta and local Northern California interests-zilch!
Meanwhile, Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Nature Conservancy had a shopping spree buying up properties in the Yolo bypass, and Delta—for what? Water rights, obviously, and to “mitigate” damages if they get their peripheral canal or pipe the size of the Chunnel built to draw more and more water away from the Delta, resulting in more endangered fish killed—and we have an Architecture Professor from British Columbia pushing “Delta National Park” in the Sacramento Bee?
Curiouser, and curiouser.
That’s right, the Sacramento Bee, the Met, the Nature Conservancy, and the royal me, known as the DNP, have teamed up to bring you $11.4 BILLION worth of ag and SoCal greed. Please note, Delta Girl2, the word “provided” in your citation of my Aguanomics comment. It’s an important word, meaning “if.”
If DeltaGirl2 is essentially of a NIMBY preservationist persuasion (as are many of the comments), then jbhunt offers a fine example of anti-government, anti-spending irrationality, the other major expression of good ‘ol California political dysfunction:
jbhunt wrote on 03/06/2010 07:41:16 PM:
Why not! The Government is taking over everything else! Our money,banks,car companies,health care just to name a few. What not take the land away from the families,that in some cases,have been living on for generations! What’s really scary is that some people think this is a good idea! Be very careful the government will someday want something you own!
jbhunt, just curious - do you drive on roads? Drink clean water and eat safe food? Go to school once? Did you know that the state already pays a substantial proportion of Delta levee maintenance through subvention programs? Shall we bring Bureau of Reclamation agricultural water subsidies into the discussion, jbhunt?
jbhunt, et al, did you all just ignore the section of the SacBee article that said that the DNP proposes that only the levees would become publicly owned, and not the land they protect nor the development rights to the levee edge?
Finally, to Ruth Gottstein: the DNP says thanks for getting it:
ruthgottstein wrote on 03/06/2010 04:13:00 AM:
Yes, yes, yes! The proximity alone to Sacramento, San Francisco and other urban areas make this an incredible location. It’s hard to believe that such a magnificent area has been unexplored and undeveloped in the fashion in which the study proposes.
Delta implements and machines: Combine Ferry
The Delta’s unique and difficult soil conditions have brought about the invention of notable machines and implements.
Invented near Stockton was the Holt Caterpillar, the world’s first crawler-type tractor. The invention of its continuous track allowed machines to move through the Delta’s mucky soils.
Rio Vista’s Lloyd Schmidt and his welding buddies gave the world the first sugar beet harvester. The harvester was the result of just the right progressive curve banged into a 20-penny nail. A drawing from the patent application:
The world’s first mechanical beet harvester, invented by Delta blacksmiths.
The DNP has discovered that a new piece of equipment, the Combine Ferry, is being developed by designer Scott Keck that brings together two new Delta-specific needs: the movement of people around the Delta’s waterways, and the harvesting of invasive water hyacinth. Here is a schematic drawing of the device:
Part waterborne corn chopper, part party boat, the combine ferry will lead a busy life in the Delta.
Webb Tract water transfer - a sign of the future.
Via @stopperipheral, perhaps the most dedicated Delta issues twitterer, comes news of this announcement of an in-Delta water transfer by the owners of Webb Tract.
Unsure if this was a new policy of the folks at the Delta Wetlands Project, the DNP dug around a bit at the State Water Resouces Control Board’s website.
Turns out it wasn’t a new policy. At the website, we found a notice for an earlier Delta Wetlands Project water transfer application, dated December 31, 2008. The Webb/Bouldin application proposed to transfer 17, 941 acre-feet of water to the Met from May to September 2009. The Webb tract application is to transfer 4,500 acre feet. Add a year, same time and place.
The DWP owns Webb Tract, Bouldin and Bacon Islands, and most of Holland Tract. They are trying to make some money, and clearly there is more money in selling water than corn.
Anyway, the SWRCB website is a really rich source of information. The DNP found, within a minute, this paper on Delta ecosystem investments by the folks at U.C. Davis Delta Solutions Program.
This paper provides background for discussion on prioritizing ecosystem investments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Ecosystem investments involve the allocation and expenditure of financial resources, land, and water to improve ecosystem attributes, principally to support desirable plant and animal species. A framework using ten ecological criteria is provided for organizing these investments into a portfolio (or into regional portfolios) that can guide investment prioritization and timing. This framework is meant to be used in conjunction with non-ecological criteria, also presented. This portfolio contains 34 potential investments that are drawn mostly from the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program Conservation Strategy, and the Delta Regional Ecosystem Restoration and Implementation Plan. Means to prioritize these investments are discussed.
Check out the appendix, which gives a breakdown of the ecosystem investment potential of 34 sites in the Delta. The breakdown is detailed, and revealing. The DNP was surprised to learn that Bacon Island, for example
...will be used as a water storage facility. It also has the potential to be utilized as a rearing habitat for species requiring open water habitat. Such an investment meets the needs of improving water supply while potentially assisting species of concern in the Delta.
Bacon Island, which the DWP wants to make a reservoir, has been the subject of 20 years of public hearings and environmental review. It may become a reservoir. To continue with Bacon Island:
If the flooded island were to become inhabited by invasive species it could easily be drained and repopulated with desirable species again.
Or alternatively, repopulated with invasive species. Since when did “invasive” and “desirable” become mutually exclusive categories, by the way? For many, including the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the invasive striped bass is something to preserve. It isn’t clear why the invasive/desirable point is even relevant.
Bacon Island’s management policy has changed recently. No trespassing on the island is now enforced. The DWP has gone to plan B for entering the water development market. Stakes high.
Here’s UC Davis on Dead Horse Island, just north of Giusti’s:
Love that phrase, “shovel-ready.” And, just for good measure, since their “levees failed repeatedly,” let’s get it over with and “breach” this island’s levees for keeps. Any wonder why people in the Delta don’t like the UC Davis folks and their black-and-white view of the Delta’s future?
The UC Davis program and the Delta Wetlands Project are glimpses into two different futures of the Delta.
In the Davis future, the Delta is turned into a landscape of breached levees, brackish water and managed habitats.
In the DWP future, the Delta is a landscape made of equal parts polders turned reservoirs and polders turned mitigating managed habitat.
The two are mutually exclusive, since polder reservoirs collecting brackish water have no value in the water market.
Delta Wetlands has now more than once fallowed its fields in order to sell their water to the Met. Since water is only getting more valuable and land getting harder to maintain, surely this is a sign of the future. Unless, that is, Delta landowners develop and are allowed to develop other sources of income and exchange.
As the water transfers precedent set by the Delta Wetlands Project suggests, the Delta’s land-owning corporate interests are interested in developing water. That is not the only development scenario available to the region. Work together folks.