Environmental Defense Fund testimony for Bay Delta Conservation Plan Hearing

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 17, 2010 at 8:11 am From the Environmental Defense Fund, this testimony by Cynthia Koehler before
Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife on November 16, 2010:

“Chairman Huffman and Members of the Committee, on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and our thousands of California members, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and the outlook for the future. As you know, EDF has been a member of the BDCP Steering Committee, and my colleague Ann Hayden has been an active participant in the BDCP process, for the last five years. Attached to this testimony is a recent Opinion Editorial piece that Ms. Hayden and I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle that very briefly outlines EDF’s view about BDCP and the direction it can take most productively going forward.

As indicated in the Opinion Editorial, EDF remains firmly committed to the BDCP process and believes that, notwithstanding important unresolved issues, it is only through this type of open, public and thorough planning effort that California will successfully restore the most important estuary on the west coast while also providing steady and sustainable supplies of water to our farms and cities. We are encouraged that even in the face of disagreements among stakeholders about how best to proceed, there is nevertheless a strong consensus that ecosystem restoration of the San Francisco Bay-Delta is a vital priority for California on par with providing reliable water supply. … “

Continue reading this testimony by clicking here.