Home Board of Supervisors Supervisor Mary Piepho Talks Delta in Brentwood

Supervisor Mary Piepho Talks Delta in Brentwood

by ECT

Mary Piepho Delta June 2013

Friday morning, Supervisor Mary Piepho found herself in Brentwood meeting with the Kiwanis Club to provide an update on the California Delta and the water grab from Southern California.

I recorded her discussion which was about 30-minutes long which was full of information and encourage you to view the video. Piepho shared the history of the Delta and where we are today with the proposals at the table.  She is encouraging water storage to become a big part of the discussion going forward.

Here is a little recap which was simplified and nicely explained the issue at hand and potential solutions.

“We have an old legacy and a continued problem. We do have a conveyance problem,” said Piepho.

“The Delta already suffers from a lack of flow. Now they are talking about exporting more water without including the discussion of water storage when we have excess water to pull from the delta and store. So it’s a huge fight, it’s a huge battle, and guess who the governor is? We have Governor Brown times two—the same governor, the same fight, but it’s a bipartisan fight because Governor Schwartzenegger under his republican administration was part of SBX 71 so both have southern California interest, both have, dare I say significant egos that they want to use major projects as their landmark on their leadership and unfortunately we will be effected by that directly and negativity,” said Piepho.

She stated it could be $22 billion project that does not include bond or debt costs so double that. It does not include local leadership at the table or cost benefit analysis and does not create any additional water supply. It just moves water from one place to another.

Piepho hopes that locally, more leaders will come to the table and work with the coalition to fight. She thanked George Millers leadership on the issue along with our state leaders who are local for fighting the good fight.

piephodelta

Note: Delta talk begins at about the 3:45 mark.

Part 1 – 18:54 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKUMB1Gmfu8&feature=youtu.be

Part 2  – 9:16 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgN_vWyHfcg&feature=youtu.be

Mary Piepho Delta June 2013 B

Talking Points

Both State and federal officials are wanting to push ahead with their Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the unavoidable consequence of their plan are the proposed 37-mile twin tunnels that would make their way through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

This tunnel will be about 150 feet deep, 30+ feet wide, and 37 miles long. It will also flow 9,000 cfs capacity = 75,405 gallons of water a second

Key issues for Contra Costa concerning the proposed tunnel project:

  • Diverting Sacramento River water will leave the Delta (the source of our water) with lower quality water
  • Delta counties have no role in decisions
  • The science on flow and ecology should be completed first, before planning any new plumbing
  • No financial plan to pay for all the costs, which will be in the tens of billions of dollars—construction and ongoing operations and maintenance costs
  • Other alternatives should be looked at

Often not mentioned in the plan is the project would produce about 7,000 cubic yards of “tunnel muck” each day. Overall, the project would produce a total of 22 million cubic yards of tunnel much, enough to cover 100 football fields to a height of roughly 100 feet.

Supervisor Mary Piepho also serves on the Delta Protection Commission with other local elected leaders which includes Senator Mark DeSaulnier, Assemblyman Jim Frazier, and Oakley Councilwoman Diane Burgis.

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6 comments

JimSimmons42 Jun 22, 2013 - 7:43 am

This video is great, I love hearing and not reading.

In the Know Jun 22, 2013 - 7:45 am

Home run! We need to get into southern California newspapers and share with them the facts that their water bills are going up. She said $400 bills, but that may be high, but they would have to go up on any project costing at least $40 billion.

I like the fact she brings up they want the water to maintain their lifestyle. Okay, that is why you don’t live in a desert. I like the idea of Oregon and Washington mass water and a pipeline there that is excess.

Finally, any plan that requires $240 million to bring to the table is probably not a good idea. A good idea should not cost a thing and if it does, it should be very little.

SmeltLover Jun 22, 2013 - 5:43 pm

Talk about a lifestyle, What hypocrisy from the supervisor who is all about herself. All these liberal progressive politicians are destroying our country. The grandstanding from these politicians have self serving justification for irresponsible decisions from both sides. Everyone in the state will pay the price of higher water bills because of this Hollywood type fiction debates. As much as I would never support Mary Piepho for any public office because I think she is destructive to our constitutional rights. Her stance on this issue is an attempt to make a legacy with the show she puts on. She is just not an honest credible politician as we all have seen. If she had any sense she would propose a solution that would solve southern California’s water problem, save the delta, save billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and propose putting the resources now wasted on dividing the public on the issue. Building a water desalinization plant near the ocean would bring everyone together that has a stake in this issue.The abundance of water in the ocean as it rises each year due to what some say is global warming is a more common sense solution for the issue.The billions of dollars spent to decimate the delta could easily be used to build desalinization plants for far less tax dollars.

JigsUp Jun 23, 2013 - 9:27 am

You really shouldn’t comment on issues you don’t understand. It makes you look foolish.

Clearly you are butt hurt with Piepho over something. But calling her a progressive was hilarious. Again showing you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

Building a water desalination plant? Singular? There are at least a dozen of them on the drawing board up and down the central and southern coast with one in the San Diego area already under construction. Even if all were completed tomorrow it doesn’t solve the water needs. The biggest consumer is agriculture, not Southern California. Ag consumes 80% of the water pumped out of the Delta. They source that water at a cost of about $20 acre-ft. The cost of desal is estimated at $2,000 acre-ft for the plant under construction. Simple math should explain to you why everyone isn’t onboard with that 1,000%. And oh by the way, the plants cost about a billion a piece to build assuming one doesn’t run into a gauntlet of environmental hurdles and lawsuits, which means they aren’t cheap. They use a tremendous amount of electricity to operate, meaning they are subject to upward cost pressures in the future from that manipulated market. Building desal to feed the biggest consumer(Ag) is even more monumental because the plant has to be on the coast and then you have to pump it inland.

It would be great if we could make simpleton suggestions and just have the problem solve itself. Life doesn’t work that way.

SmeltLover Jun 23, 2013 - 10:41 am

So you advocate for ruining the delta by way of tunnels. That is simple minded.Even a pieline from Oregon is a better simple minded approach than your idea of nothing else but a tunnel. As far as Mary Piepho is concerned you missed the point. She is playing politics with ecology so she can follow daddy’s footsteps at any cost.Grandstanding on a subject like this for political advancemet is sick. We already have too many politicians that have lied their way up the political ladder. That is working pretty bad today. People need to wake up and throw these bums out or never let them in powerful political seats. Next thing you know there will be a 100 million dollar vacation cost on us like the current joke of a leader we have now.By the way, thank you for your generous extensive knowledge on everything Einstein.YRFOS.

JigsUp Jun 23, 2013 - 4:21 pm

Nice attempt to put words in my mouth. Since you’re a mind reader, do you have the numbers for the ponies running this afternoon too?

I made no statement in support of tunnels or any other water diversion plan because I don’t support either. Apparently your testosterone intake is off the charts again and prompting another paranoia flareup.

I realize facts frighten people like you, which explains the emotional outburst in your reply. Maybe you do it different at your house, but where I come from knowing the facts as a foundation before offering up solutions is sound problem solving.

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