Frazier Says Votes by Delta Stewardship Council Show Why Council Should be Disbanded

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay) released the following statement Thursday after the Delta Stewardship Council voted 5-to-2 on amendments to various chapters of the Delta Plan.

The chapters that are being amended include the Delta Levee Investment Strategy; the Conveyance, Storage Systems, and Operation of Both; and Performance Measures. Instead of voting on each amended chapter individually, the Council took one vote on all of them. Also included in that vote was the certification of the Delta Plan’s Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Report. Prior to the vote on the Delta Plan amendments, the Council voted against a 60-day extension to continue work on those amendments.

“Today’s action is a great example of why I believe the Delta Stewardship Council is a major threat to the Delta and why I attempted to disband it. Instead of voting appropriately on each individual amendment to the Delta Plan, the Council lumped them together and ignored the needs of Delta residents. The amendments on conveyance rubber stamp the disastrous tunnels plan and the Delta Levees Investment Strategy implement a flawed formula to prioritize funding that would diminish funding to agricultural and legacy communities throughout the Delta. There has never been a complete cost-benefit analysis that shows the tunnels would have any benefit to either Delta residents or ratepayers throughout state. I want to thank both Supervisor Skip Thomson and my former colleague in the Assembly, Mike Gatto, the only two members to vote no, for urging that the Council consider each set of amendments on its own merit.”

###

Assemblymember Frazier represents the 11^th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.