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CSPA Slams Board, Governor for Water Project Consolidation 
by Dan Bacher 
Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, on Tuesday castigated the State Water Resources Control Board for its draft ruling allowing the consolidation of the federal Central Valley Water Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) place of use permits. This petition will allow for the first time water from Shasta to go to LA and water from Oroville to go to the Westland's Waters District. Under the guise of an emergency drought proclamation by the Governor, the California Environment Water Quality Act (CEQA) and State Board Decision 1641, the only Bay-Delta protections we have, have been tossed into the garbage, according to Jennings. 
Jennings said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's drought proclamation is based on "bogus claims." Had the Board allowed the proclamation to be introduced as evidence, "we would have rebutted its bogus claims lie by lie," said Jennings.  "This order is a backdoor attack upon 150 years of water law and precedent," stated Jennings. "It is an attack upon the public trust. It threatens to undermine faith in public institutions and, indeed, in government itself."  "Never before have we had to waive CEQA and Water Quality Control Plans or turn California's permit system upside down through a truncated hearing that violates the most basic due process rights," he said. 
As Jennings was testifying in defense of the Delta and California's imperiled fish populations, Schwarzenegger was in Washington, D.C. playing the incongruous role of the "Green Governor." Schwarzenegger used the Obama administration's announcement of an agreement between the federal government, automakers, and the 14 states led by California in their fight to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles to tout his "environmental" record. 
“California’s relentless push for greenhouse gas reductions from automobiles is paying off not just for our state, but for all Americans, for our environment, for automakers and our economy," said Schwarzenegger. "This historic agreement to reduce greenhouse gases will mean cleaner air for our children and grandchildren, greater economic security as we rely less on foreign oil, and a chance at renewal for our auto industry. Today, we’re seeing what happens when California leads on energy and the environment and doesn’t waiver, doesn’t get bogged down, doesn’t let obstacles get in the way.” 
However, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger finally leaves office, he will actually leave as his "green" legacy collapsing fisheries and environmental devastation unprecedented in California and U.S. history. While the mainstream media and many corporate-funded "environmental" groups praise him for his "leadership" on "green energy," Schwarzenegger has presided over the destruction of Central Valley Chinook salmon, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, striped bass and other fish populations. 
"Environmentalism," Schwarzenegger-style, is nothing other than a particularly toxic and destructive form of corporate greenwashing. While he engages in photo opportunities with President Obama, Senators, Representatives and other politicians, his administration's "leadership" is waging an unprecedented war against California's fish populations and aquatic ecosystems. 
The same Governor who has repeatedly lied about the California "drought" is relentlessly campaigning for a peripheral canal and more dams, a dangerous project that is expected to worsen the already imperiled state of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. Although some scientists and the Nature Conservancy have gone on record in support of the peripheral canal because it would supposedly accomplish "co-equal goals" of ecosystem restoration and water supply, I have two questions to ask canal proponents.
First, can anybody show me one single example in U.S. history where the construction of a water supply canal has led to less water being taken out of a river system?
Second, can anybody point to one example of where a massive canal project like the peripheral canal has led to ecosystem restoration, rather than ecosystem destruction?
For more information about the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, go to California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Here is Jennings' superb testimony before the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento on Tuesday, May 19: