24 June 26, 2020 VOL.39 • ISS. 14
Interior Requests Funding
for Shasta Dam Raise,
Sites Reservoir and Friant-
Kern Canal Under WIIN Act
T
he U.S. Department of
Interior on Monday, June
22, requested $15 million for the
Shasta Dam enlargement project,
a project that Tribes, fishing
groups and conservation organizations
say will drive imperiled
winter-run Chinook salmon closer
to extinction and flood many of the
remaining sacred cultural sites of
the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
This $15 million was part of
the $108.7 million in funding for
surface water storage projects
in California under the Water
Infrastructure Improvements for
the Nation (WIIN) Act of 2016
that Interior Assistant Secretary
for Water and Science Timothy
Petty requested in a letter sent to
Marcy Kaptur, Chairwoman of
the Subcommittee on Energy and
Water Development, and Related
Agencies.
You can read the letter here:
https://mavensnotebook.com/
wp-content/uploads/2020/06/
Chairwoman-Kaptur-Letter-WI-
IN-Storage-06-22-20.pdf
The request comes from a Department
of Interior that is headed
by Secretary David Bernhardt, a
former lobbyist for the powerful
Westlands Water District, the largest
agricultural water district in the
country, and the oil industry.
According to the letter, “This
project will enlarge Shasta Dam
and Reservoir, creating an additional
634,000 acre-feet of storage
to benefit anadromous fish cold
water supply (191,000 acre-feet)
and water supply reliability,
improve Upper Sacramento River
habitat, increase power generation,
and increase/improve recreation
CALIFORNIA'S
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MOBILE WEBSITE & INTERACTIVE MAP
opportunities.”
The letter says the funds will be
used for “preconstruction activities
related to Shasta Dam raise, recreation
facilities planning/coordination,
and reservoir infrastructure
modifications.” Pre-construction
and design activities include: field
explorations; contracts for cultural
resource activities to support
the required Historic Properties
Treatment Plan development,
survey data collection, seismic and
hydrologic studies, and consultant
contracts; and project management.
Funds will also be used to begin
construction once WIIN requirements
are met.
The request also includes $4
million for Sites Reservoir,
another project opposed by Tribes,
fishermen and conservationists
because it would be used in tandem
with the Shasta Dam enlargement
to increase water deliveries to the
Westlands Water District and other
corporate agribusiness interests in
the San Joaquin Valley.
“The proposed project includes up
to an additional 1.8 million acre-feet
of off-stream surface storage to
restore flexibility and adaptability
to Central Valley Project (CVP) and
State Water Project (SWP) operations,”
the letter states. “Funding
will be used for feasibility activities
including operational agreements as
well as ESA revisions, water rights,
and water modeling.”
Besides the $15 million for the
Shasta Dam project and $4 million
for Sites Reservoir, the request
includes $71 million to fix the
Friant-Kern Canal, $3 million
to study subsidence on the Delta
Mendota Canal, $1.5 million for
studies
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resources for MPA boundaries
and regulation information.
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boundaries, regulations maps,
and species information.
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MPAs available for download.
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related to
Del Puerto
Water
District’s
proposed
reservoir
near
Patterson,
7.8 million
for Las
Vequeros,
as well
as other
studies.
Representatives
Kevin
McCarthy,
Ken Calvert
By Dan Bacher
(CA-42), Paul Cook (CA-08), Mike
Garcia (CA-25), Doug LaMalfa
(CA-01), Tom McClintock (CA-04),
and Devin Nunes (CA-22) issued
the following statement praising
Petty’s letter requesting the funding.
“Water is the lifeblood that
supports California’s families,
small businesses, and agricultural
producers. However, California’s
last major reservoir was built over
40 years ago despite the state’s
population doubling since then.
This is simply not sustainable, and
it’s clearer now more than ever that
additional surface water storage in
the state is necessary to maintaining
our way of life.
“Prior to his election – and most
recently during his visit to Bakersfield
in February – President Trump
recognized the importance of
ensuring that our constituents get
the water they contract and pay for,
and the need for additional storage
capacity to capture water during
wet years for use in dry ones. That
is why we want to commend him,
Interior Secretary Bernhardt, and
Reclamation Commissioner Burman
for continuing to prioritize building
new and expanding existing surface
water storage facilities in California
to help our state become drought
resilient.”
“Now, Congress must work
expeditiously to incorporate these
funding requests, including money
for the Shasta Reservoir project, in
the Fiscal Year 2021 Energy and
Water appropriations bill. We call
on California House Democrats to
put politics aside and ensure that
the very people they were elected to
represent have access to water.”
However, salmon advocates
slammed the letter requesting
funding for the Shasta Dam raise
and Sites Reservoir. These say these
projects are designed to provide at
taxpayers’ expense more exported
water for corporate farmers at the
expense of salmon, Tribes and the
people of California.
“The fact is the water that the
Sites Reservoir and Shasta Dam
raise might provide would go to
David Bernhardt’s rich former
clients like the Westlands Water
District so they can farm almonds,
for export, in the desert,” said
Regina Chichizola, co-director of
Save California Salmon. “The best
case scenario from these destructive
water projects is that much more
water will be diverted from our
rivers to feed corporate farms on
toxic lands, while over a million
of California’s people continue
to struggle for clean water and
fishermen and tribes suffer. The
worst case scenario is that taxpayers
pay millions for new dams and
reservoirs that will not ever fill up.”
“People have the right to clean
water,” noted Chichizola. “Rural
communities and Tribes have the
right to the jobs, and the healthy
food source, that salmon provide.
Corporations do not have the right
to our tax dollars, or our clean
water. These projects give away our
most precious resources to water
barons All Californians should fight
against this proposal.”
Providing irrigation water to the
Westlands Water District and other
corporate agribusiness interests
so they can grow almonds and
other crops for export “is the sole
purpose of exporting more water
that the north state cannot afford
to ship from mountain streams and
rivers,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief of
the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Especially
when there are no efforts to
help maintain the high mountain
streams, rivers, meadows, and trees.
You have already taken all that can
be taken without now DRYING
UP the source. Get rich some other
way!”
The dam raise, in conjunction with
the construction of Sites Reservoir,
would not only sacrifice water,
salmon and the Delta to the greed
of agribusiness barons, according
to dam raise and Sites Reservoir
opponents. The dam raise would
also inundate or impact sacred sites
integral to the Winnemem Wintu’s
culture and history. Sites that would
be flooded include Children’s Rock
and Puberty Rock, vital sacred sites
for the Winnemem Wintu’s Puberty
Ceremony for young women.
The Winnemem Wintu, who held
war dances at Shasta Dam against
the raising of dam in 2004 and then
again in 2014, call the dam raise a
“Weapon of Mass Desecration.”
“How would you feel if someone
was coming to burn down your
house, everyone knew it was going
to happen, but no one — not even
the people who are supposed to
protect you — cared enough to stop
it,” said Marine Sisk, Chief Caleen
Sisk’s daughter, on Winnemem
sacred sites that would be drowned
by the proposed raise of Shasta
Dam.