I
am speaking today against any wild & scenic designation for any part of the
Mokelumne River and to protest this total waste of tax payer money for this absolutely
unnecessary study by GEI Consultants.
Firstly,
the very term "wild & scenic" is a misnomer. These are controlled dam release
flows which are “coincidentally” ideal for rafting.
The
very idea of what we are doing today, examining W&S in isolation, is
absurd. Place all the W&S designations, conservation easements, land banks,
carbon capture forests, etc, etc on a map and you have the land tenure system
of the medieval Europe. Probably almost everyone in this room is descended from
people who voted with their feet to leave that behind and join the American
dream instead.
This
proposed designation fits directly into the evil globalist plan to depopulate
rural areas and house us in stack and pack big city apartments. Our job is to
change the bed linen for the Bay Area liberal elite high tech tourists. Our way
of life and prosperity are as important to them as was the life of the last
housefly we killed. The importance GEI Consultants give the global warming fraud,
the corrupted scientific reason for much of this, certainly substantiates this
point of view.
Page
2-10 of the study states, “Using projected future water supply and demand under
three climate change scenarios, the study concluded that Amador’s future water
needs would ultimately exceed its current water rights if existing land use
designations under the County General Plan are built out.” So why further
restrict water use? Also, plans are plans, not the reality of an unknown future
with assuredly unexpected events. I find
it easy to envision a future, given the increasing Federal debt, where we are
under some sort of martial law to mine our gold and sent it to China to
maintain our sovereignty.
This
state designation is simply a prelude to the even more restrictive federal
designation, which is probably an illegal inverse condemnation under the Fifth Amendment. Even if some existing uses
are grandfathered in, this precludes the activity of future generations of
entrepreneurs and flushes the American dream down the toilet.
Furthermore,
this designation doesn’t change anything in the present. Nothing will change
and rafting, dam releases, etc will continue. The argument of protecting the
river is fallacious. If anyone were to propose anything of significance along
the river the environmental litigation would probably last longer than my
lifetime.
The
Mokelumne River Canyon/Devil’s Nose Dam maybe one of two outstanding water
storage sites left in all of California.
What I assume this means is the most water stored for the least capital
expenditure. This is an obvious trade
off decision since there are countless other rivers in California for tourism
and recreation. I have heard differing
opinions on this and would have researched this further, but without funding
from the George Soros Tides and Rose Foundations like the Foothill Conservancy
has, my time is limited.
All
the water that Amador County loses goes to East Bay MUD. And while probably
within the law, the Foothill Conservancy and EBMUD have been in cahoots for
years. They have a shared interest, despite an occasional lawsuit. Also, the Foothill
Conservancy has a potential conflict of interest with O.A.R.S, a rafting
company, whose proprietor sits on the Foothill Conservancy board. Is it
possible that the county council look into this situation?
I
came of age in the 1960’s and since then have adopted a saying of that time:
Tell it like it is, baby, tell it like it is.
Mark
Bennett,
Pine Grove
PS:
There are slight revisions in the above from my earlier remarks at the Board of
Supervisors.
Some fact to counter this defamatory, false and misleading drivel ...
ReplyDeleteRe the WS study -- the bill that called for the study, AB 142, was supported by the Amador County Board of Supervisors, local water agencies, the Amador County Business Council, the Amador County Republican Central Committee and many others, and carried by Rep. Frank Bigelow, a Republican Assemblyman. Conservation groups supported the bill, but were not the folks who pushed to have the study done. Several elected local officials have called the study "good" and "helpful" since its release.
Much of what Mark claims about Wild and Scenic designation is simply not true. He's been advocating for more local dams since 1989. It might serve him well to actually learn the facts about local water rights, water availability, river protection, etc, because he's clearly clueless in that department. He might start by reading the entire Wild and Scenic study, not pulling out one quote as somehow representative of the entire report.
As far as the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Foothill Conservancy goes, here are some facts. In 1999-2000. the Foothill Conservancy worked with the State Lands Commission and CA Attorney General's Office to secure public access to the Middle Bar Reach of the Mokelumne, which EBMUD blocked people from using for more than 30 years. FC did that by gaining support from the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors and all five cities in Amador County. That did not endear us to EBMUD. In 2009 EBMUD approved a proposed expansion of Pardee Reservoir, which would have flooded the entire Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne and part of the Electra Run -- and resulted in actual condemnation of private property. While nearly everyone in Amador and Calaveras opposed the Pardee expansion, it was the FC and other nonprofits who sued East Bay MUD to stop the expansion. It was a very stressful, expensive, and difficult thing to do -- but we did it, and we won. That convinced EBMUD to drop the Pardee expansion from its long-term management plan. FC later persuaded EBMUD to route a trail close to the river and to provide land access from the trail to the river.
FC reps go to countless government agency meetings. At times, we do work with local agencies. That would include jointly authoring fuel reduction funding letters with Amador County and supporting its lawsuit challenging a local casino, joining the City of Plymouth in suing El Dorado County, and helping local water agencies apply for grants for water conservation, distribution system updates -- and more.
Mark's malicious, defamatory speculation about one of Foothill Conservancy's directors is beyond the pale. There is no commercial rafting on the Mokelumne River and O.A.R.S. makes no money from the raft trips it donates to the Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program, Stewardship Through Education program or the Foothill Conservancy. Like all responsible nonprofit organizations, the FC has a board conflict of interest policy, and if a director does have a conflict of interest in an FC decision, they recuse themselves from the discussion.
As far as water that flows down the Mokelumne -- it is not true that all the water that leaves Amador County goes to East Bay MUD. The water they can draw from the Mokelumne is limited to the amount in their water right. The Mokelumne below Amador County provides water for agriculture, the city of Lodi, salmon and steelhead, and fresh water to the San Francisco Bay Delta.
Mark is right about one thing: If Wild and Scenic designation for the Mokelumne is approved, the river will not change. That is, in fact, the entire point.