More Meddling in the Delta!

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Flutterby

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I received this information in an email and wanted to share it with all who read this forum.

"Here is the latest plan to keep boats out of the Delta, forwarded by Dawn Gulick of Eddo's Harbor.

DWR called a special meeting Monday (5/12) at our Reclamation district office to discuss the project. They only invited people on Sherman Island whose land might be used to build the gate at Three Mile. My neighbor found out and brought me the handout. Now for today's regularly scheduled reclamation district meeting - they made the presentation an 'emergency/urgent' agenda item. They are fast tracking this project - they are planning on having their feasibility studies done within 90 days.

Needless to say - the fact that they're doing this without inviting the impacted parties - ie: Eddo's, Outrigger etc... does not bode well. I found the link yesterday to the project website: http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/ndelta/frankstract/

We talked to Outrigger and The Point Restaurant/Delta Marina today. This project will have a HUGE impact on recreational boating. Only one of their proposals has a lock to allow recreational boaters through. It is also by far the most expensive. The second and third proposals are a full gate and a partially submerged gate (that may allow boat traffic).

Two months ago Chris asked specifically about the project at the reclamation district meeting (DWR owns 90% of Sherman Island and is well represented on the board) and was told that something like that would be years and years away from reality. Current schedule is

August 2008 - Alternatives evaluation & selection / Scoping meetings

December 2008 - Administrative draft EIR/EIS

May 2009 - Public draft EIR/EIS

December 2009 - Final EIR/EIR

May 2010 - EIR certification/Record of Decision

We need to make our voices heard that a fully closed gate situation would have huge ramifications on recreational boating. I know the materials on the website aren't the greatest of reading material but the reality is buried in there. The Value Engineering Study Report details the options - long but very informative. I'm fairly certain that by the time the Public EIR comes out - all the decisions will have been made. Chris made it very clear to the project rep from DWR today that we most certainly are impacted by this project and we need to be in the loop. It might really help if more people told DWR that they need to keep interested/impacted parties informed. To me any recreational boater on the delta is now an impacted party.

Bottom line in our opinion - we're not going to be able to stop them taking/moving water. The whole point of the project is to reduce salinity at the pumps. The way we see it - if they're going to take the water anyway - we need to really push for a through delta conveyence instead of versions of the peripherial canal, at least then we still have water in the central delta. And leading up to that....

Delta Vision www.deltavision.ca.gov There will be a meeting on 5/19 - 1pm/4pm up in Sacramento. I've been following this and have gone to two of the delta work group meetings. I have a feeling that the 5/19 meeting is going to be important. Chris & I are absolutely going to be there. Agenda is below. I troll their site fairly regularly - they have a funny way of only posting meeting materials right before meetings and I swear - and I'm gonna track this for the next big blue ribbon meeting - that m eeting materials are being posted after the fact. Here's the agenda.

http://deltavision.ca.gov/BlueRibbonTaskForce/Workgroup/May2008/Joint_Eco_Water_Supply_5-19-08.pdf

I apologize for being so wordy - but I think you'll have to agree this is an important delta issue and you guys are in good positions to get the word out. You don't want to wait for the news media - they are barely covering the delta vision process.

Have a great day! :)
Dawn"
 
Here is some background on the False River and Three-Mile Slough salinity gate issue.

http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=106417

I wonder if the gates will be constructed on a removable basis? Weren't these gates supposed to be installed first as a three-year pilot study subject to removal if things didn't work out? I wouldn't be opposed to running a gate on Three Mile Slough (TMS) on a trial basis to see if it provides relief to the pelagic species decline.

If not, DWR will probably try to push this project through preliminary EIR with some more fraudulent science like they tried with SDIP. And NOAA Fisheries will probably smack them down again.

The other thing I don't understand is the lock issue. The TMS gate is only supposed to operate four hours once daily (or two hours twice daily) during low water flow periods from August through November and each of the gate alternatives (including Three-Mile) was supposed to have a lock for boat passage. Here is the confirming section from the Value Engineering Study:

Recreational impacts from the Pilot Project and full-scale operations are generally limited to
restriction of boat traffic along channels where the tidal gate structure(s) would be constructed. Bethel and Brannon Islands are home to numerous marinas with boaters that transit the Franks Tract Recreational Area and nearby channels. The proposed tidal gate structures would limit navigation in one or more channels for certain times of the year depending on the selected gate type. Boat locks are proposed for all four alternatives, though the increased transit time through the lock is still considered an impediment to navigation. The proposed locations of the gate structures dictate the magnitude of this navigation impact (i.e., gates constructed in high traffic channels would create a greater impact to navigation than gates located channels with less boat traffic or nearby alternate routes).

As for the through-Delta conveyance scheme, don't be fooled into thinking its a better solution than the proposed Peripheral Canal. DWR doesn't have squat (science) to get EIRs on either the Through Delta or Peripheral canals. DWR does not know what effect either canal will have on the Delta environment.

Besides, with some water flow returned to the San Joaquin River with the SJR Settlement and reduced exports from the South Delta, DWR may have a hard time showing a need to build the gates in the first place.
 
We have a few "Salt Water Barriers" over here. On the Gulf ICW we have a lock type, with two gates. You drive thru one then the close it and open the other so you can go thru, but there is no water level change.
On the Calcasieu and Nechez Rivers they have the one door barrier with the water control structure next to it. It is no problem to get through, all you have to do is call. But when the water is running out of the single door barrier, you better be ready to run your throttle pretty high to get thru. Sometimes the water is 2 ft. higher upstream of the barrier.
You can see them on Mapquest if you look up Lake Charles, La. or Beaumont, Tx. and go north of town, then go to the satalite view.
 
I'm not sure how much good it will do to take this issue to the Blue Ribbon Task Force, but it couldn't hurt.

I'll try to find out when the next public input stage is planned for the Franks Tract project.
 
I was at the "Outrigger" this weekend. They have been left out of everything except notice of the last meeting. They have started a petition with quite a few signatures gathered this weekend. The Outrigger is also mentioning another set of gates on three mile between three mile slough bridge and the ramp at Brannon Island. Has anyone heard about this? They were very adament that this was true. I can't find out anything on it.
 
I hate to provide even more bad news, but a friend is a "marine" surveyor. Not the type who surveys boats but surveys depths for charting and dredging purposes. He has been hired to survey ten (10) spots for installation of salinity gates/locks. The first two spots are Three Mile Slough and Old River just east of Mildred Island. He is going to keep me updated on the locations as he finds out about them, but it sounds as if someone is trying to shove something through without a lot of public feedback.
 
Well, I hope that through this forum, we deltaphiles can all be kept appraised of what is going on and to show up at public hearings, sign petitions, email our representatives and Gov Arnold. Whatever it takes to keep this in the forefront of public attention!
 
We were at our boat at the Outrigger about 5 weeks ago. For three days straight we saw a surveyor's boat surveying between Brannon Island boat ramp and just outside of the 5 mile wake zone past the marina. At the time we didn't know what they were doing, now it all makes sense. How can they do this almost under the table. I guess shame on us though, because it looks like they have been doing quite a bit that we were not aware of.
 
This is all part of the Franks Tract Project and it includes several possible locations for salinity gates.

http://baydeltaoffice.water.ca.gov/ndelta/frankstract/index.cfm

The selection process will begin in August. One thing I'm pretty sure of: once the alternative locations are picked the pilot study gates will probably be installed and test operated one at a time. If they install and operate more than one at a time, they won't be able to determine what effect these gates have on water quality and the environment.
 
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