12/08/2015
Studying the Delta - There have been many studies of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. We are reminded of the Delta Independent Science Board's study released in January of 2011 saying there were more than 40 potential causes for the Delta's decline. The Chairman of the 10 member panel said they were not in a position to say which cause was most harmful.
Environmentalists have argued that the water pumped from the Delta to farmers in the Central Valley is mainly to blame, but the scientists could not come to this conclusion. Nevertheless, pumping restrictions have continued.
Now state and federal officials are proposing a $130 million 16 acre research center that would house 180 employees.
We have an idea for some serious study: The Sacramento water system dumps 181,000,000 gallons of treated sewage into the Delta daily. Together with other cities around the Delta, they put a total of 1,120,000 acre feet of treated sewage into the Delta annually. That's a lot of bad water for the unlucky fish.
Sacramento and other cities pumping this polluted sewage into the Delta get credit for the water gallon for gallon, and are rewarded by trading their polluted water for rights to pull and equal amount of fresh water upstream for their use.
Then they could study how to use Prop 1 or High-Speed Rail funds to clean this up. This might save the Delta ecosystem, which would save the smelt and salmon, and stop polluting drinking water for 25 million people who rely on the water for human consumption.
And farmers might be able to get more water, which would save farms, save the underground aquifer, and save jobs for thousands of farm workers.
http://www.recordnet.com/article/20151128/NEWS/151129819
The Delta is one of the most closely studied river estuaries in the world.But the scientists who are studying it are dispersed across the region, in
