Delta panel report card to give state an 'incomplete'
Bee News Services
The Fresno Bee
05/31/2009
SACRAMENTO -- A panel of officials appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to solve the Delta's water and environmental problems plans to give the state an "incomplete" grade for its progress.
The rating, to be presented in a "report card," will be finalized after testimony from environmentalists, water groups and state officials at a public meeting today in Sacramento.
The seven-member Delta Vision Task Force, led by former Sacramento Mayor Phil Isenberg, officially doesn't exist anymore. But after releasing its December recommendations, it decided to stay alive as a nonprofit group to press for action. Results in the draft report card don't look good: The foundation finds that the state has made little to no progress on most of its recommendations.
And it notes that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan being pursued by the governor and many of the state's big water agencies "would not satisfy a single one of the seven goals recommended in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan."
The Delta Vision plan called for comprehensive changes that would increase water storage, improve the environment and preserve the economy and lifestyle of Delta residents.
The group proposed aggressive actions to improve water delivery and ecosystem health in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a source of drinking water for more than 23 million Californians.
