Assembly panel shelves peripheral canal

SACRAMENTO– Under the leadership of Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis), the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee today held Senate Bill 27 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), legislation that would have authorized a process for approving the construction of a peripheral canal to divert fresh water from the failing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. 

“While the urgency for action in the Delta is clear to all of this committee, regardless of political party, whether we’re in Northern California or Southern California, emphasis on a peripheral canal today is a distraction and premature. The key issue at this point is what will further the health of the Delta. That is what must drive the discussion,” said Wolk, Chairman of the Committee. “We need much more information and good science before taking an action of this magnitude.  We don’t have that now. We don’t know yet what the right answer is. So to leap to the conclusion that a new canal or conveyance facility is the answer, and focus our attention solely on that solution, is truly premature.”

Wolk urged the committee to hold Simitian’s proposal until next year, after the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force issues its strategic plan this October. In the meantime, she urged action on short-term proposals from the Delta Vision process that increase emergency preparedness in the Delta, strengthen the state’s levee system and take other early actions to restore the Delta.

Among those testifying in opposition to the bill was Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla with Restore the Delta, a coalition of Delta residents, farmers, business leaders, fishermen, environmentalists, and other groups committed to restoring the Delta.