Does Jerry Brown Want Oroville Dam to Fail?
AGENDA 21 RADIO
BY PAUL PRESTON
UPDATED MAY 4, 2017 6:50 AM PST
“Few things have such a fundamental impact on a river as a dam or culvert. River restoration brings rivers back to life by removing dams, replacing culverts, and restoring floodplains”. AMERICAN RIVERS
STUNNING…SHOCKING interview with PATICK WOOD, author of TECHNOCRACY RISING and TRI LATERALS OVER WASHINGTON who makes the connection between the ongoing Oroville Dam disaster, California Governor Jerry Brown, former Clinton Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Clinton advisor John Podesta and the program to tear down dams across the United States. Wood makes the clear connection between the above individuals and their Agenda 21 Sustainability desires to destroy dams in the United States.
The Hired Gun: Jerry Brown Snags Bruce Babbitt as New Point Man For Delta Tunnels
Governor Jerry Brown has enlisted Bruce Babbitt, the former Secretary of Interior under the Clinton administration and former Governor of Arizona, to serve as a “special advisor” to the Brown administration on California WaterFix, the new name for the Delta Tunnels, and other Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta matters.
The hiring of Babbitt was first revealed in an opinion piece by Sacramento Bee Editor Dan Morain published on July 14 entitled, “Brown calls on Bruce Babbitt, as time runs short for water fix.” (www.sacbee.com/…)
The California Natural Resources Agency did not publicly announce Mr. Babbitt’s hire, which is very curious for the appointment of such a prominent former federal official.
“We were asked about it by the Sacramento Bee,” said Nancy Vogel, deputy secretary for communications at the California Natural Resources Agency and former reporter for the Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times.
“Mr. Babbitt has deep experience addressing complex natural resource issues and his counsel will be helpful as we work to resolve long-standing water supply and ecological challenges in the Delta – and balance human and environmental needs,” Vogel said. “Mr. Babbitt will be paid with state funds through the Department of Water Resources and will be working in both Washington, D.C. and California.”
His salary is approximately $10,000 a month, approximately $120,000 per year, according to Vogel.
Babbitt will be pushing for the completion of Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels, a Brown “legacy” project opposed by a coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, family farmers, Delta residents, environmental justice advocates and Delta residents.
On Tuesday, July 26, the State Water Resources Control Board will begin hearings regarding the California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s requested permits for new water diversion intakes on the Sacramento River and water quality certification under the Clean Water Act, essential permits required before the giant tunnels under the Delta can be constructed.
“We cannot sit on dead center,” Babbitt told Morain in an interview. “We must find a solution that meets all of the co-equal goals. So here I am.”
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), responded to the news of his hiring by stating, “The former Interior Secretary has a long and illustrious career and is respected.”
“However, we are concerned that in the work he is doing on behalf of the California Department of Water Resources for Jerry Brown, we have yet another environmental leader clinging to the big water infrastructure projects of the past like the Delta Tunnels that will not solve the challenges posed by a megadrought and climate change.”
Bob Wright, senior counsel of Friends of the River, told Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press that environmental group leaders want to meet with Babbitt to discuss alternatives to the Delta Tunnels.
The Environmental Water Caucus has submitted to state officials “A Sustainable Water Plan for California in May 2014 as a reasonable alternative to the Water Tunnels, but the Brown administration refuses to look at this or other proposals.. The plan is available at: ewccalifornia.org/….
A diverse coalition of family farmers, Tribal leaders, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, conservationists, Delta residents, environmental justice advocates and elected officials opposes the construction of the 30-mile long twin tunnels, since their construction would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species. The project would also imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.
Trinity River ROD signed, temperature control devices built
During his stint as Interior Secretary under President Clinton from 1993 to 2000, environmentalists, the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and Karuk tribes and fishing groups applauded Babbitt for signing the landmark Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) in December 2000 just before he left office.
The decision, for the first time, allocated 47 percent of the river flows for fish and downstream needs and the other 53 percent for irrigation and hydropower needs.
Some fishing and environmental groups also praised Babbitt’s shepherding of the construction of the temperature control devices on Shasta Dam and Whiskeytown Reservoir to provide colder temperatures to restore winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon.
In fact, I attended the ceremony for the unveiling of the temperature control device at Shasta Dam in 1998 with Larry Ward, then President of United Anglers of California, who appeared on stage with Babbitt and several other representatives of fishing and environmental groups.
After the event was over, Ward and I went to the only available place to eat, McDonald’s, and grabbed a couple of hamburgers. We saw Babbitt and his aide there and invited them to go fishing with us for rainbow trout on the Upper Sacramento River.
“I’d really love to go fishing with you, but I have to catch a plane in less than an hour,” Babbitt. “Thanks for the invitation.”
Babbitt oversaw controversial CalFed deal
However, Babbitt received much more critical reviews for his role in forging the CalFed deal between the Pete Wilson administration and the Clinton administration. The deal completely excluded recreational and fishing groups, Indian Tribes and most environmental groups, although several groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense and the Bay Institute, signed on.
“Peace has broken out,” claimed Governor Pete Wilson at the time.
In a major insult to fishermen throughout the state, organizers of the press conference to unveil the CalFed agreement in 1994 barred the late Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), from the event. The outrage that Grader and recreational and commercial fishermen expressed to the State Legislature, Clinton Administration and Wilson Administration culminated in a special committee hearing convened by State Senator Tom Hayden challenging the exclusion of fishermen from the event and the process.
Twenty-two years later, Morain, a supporter of the Delta Tunnels, gushed about Babbitt’s new role in pushing conveyance in his article.
“Last week, Brown gave Babbitt a tour at the room where he stores the binders that hold 30,000 pages of science behind the governor’s proposal, twin tunnels, 40-feet in diameter, 30 miles long. Babbitt long ago concluded that a ‘conveyance’ is needed, if not the $15 billion-plug tunnels,” said Morain.
“If we don’t built (sic) the tunnels – sorry, if we don’t build a conveyance facility; I want to stay generic – we’re headed up a blind alley,” Babbitt told him.
Babbitt forecasts “absolutely apocalyptic consequences” if tunnels not built
Babbitt has apparently swallowed Jerry Brown’s false claims that if the tunnels aren’t built, the sea level rise resulting from climate change and an earthquake will destroy the levees holding the saltwater from the bay and ocean back, resulting in the destruction of the Delta as a water supply for cities and irrigators.
“If this impasse continues between Northern and Southern California, it may lead to absolutely apocalyptic consequences,” he told the Bee. “It could result in total victory or total defeat for one side or the other with unpredictable consequences. The impasse won’t go on forever.”
But Babbitt’s position as a promoter of the tunnels, a project that Delta advocates say is the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history, is not surprising when you consider the Babbitt has been mired in controversy since leaving the Department of Interior in 2001.
Interior Secretary joined law firm representing environmental destroyers
After leaving the Department of Interior in 2001, Babbitt took a job as chief counsel of the environmental litigation department of Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. He represented the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort and its effort to expand the resort and use wastewater to make artificial snow, clashing with Native Americans and environmentalists.
“Babbitt has long proclaimed to be a defender of the environment and a friend to Native Americans. But his actions betray his words,” the Save the Peaks Coalition said on its website.
But that’s just one of the many controversies that have marred Babbitt’s “environmentalist” image. The late Alexander Cockburn exposed the anti-environmental policies of Babbitt in his July 30, 2001 article, “Bruce Babbitt: Man Without Shame.”
“Within days of landing his new job as a counsel in the firm’s Environmental Litigation shop, Babbitt could be found at the annual gathering of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the $3 billion lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, cheerleading for the planned Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump, on Western Shoshone lands in Nevada,” Cockburn wrote.
Babbitt’s law firm represented US Ecology, the nation’s biggest radioactive waste hauler and a prime candidate to get millions in contracts if Yucca Mountain was approved.
Babbitt’s clients also included two of the biggest developers on the California coast: Washington Mutual, developers of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County and the Hearst ranch at San Simeon below Big Sur. But Babbitt was already promoting the interests of land developers even before he left Interior, Cockburn pointed out.
“During his tenure at Interior, Babbitt ushered through hundreds of complex lands swaps and federal buyouts of private property where potential development plans had been stymied by environmental restrictions,” said Cockburn. “ The deals often ended up with the developers getting much more money than their land is worth.”
Cockburn said the most high profile example was the Headwaters Forest bailout, “where corporate raider Charles Hurwitz ran off with more than $480 million for land that an Interior Department land appraiser concluded had a market value of less than $100 million.”
It is clear that Bruce Babbitt, like the governor that he is now working for, has two faces. One is the “environmentalist” image that he continues to promote.
The other face is a long time cheerleader for environmentally devastating projects like the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump and the Arizona Snowbowl fiasco, so it should be no surprise that Babbitt is now receiving a $10,000 a month salary from the Department of Water Resources to promote the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history.
Babbitt and Podesta while working in the Clinton administration came up with a sustainability project for dam removal. Babbitt is the king of dam removal and he was hired by California Governor Jerry Brown to help Brown remove and destroy dams in California. Given Brown’s terrible record on maintaining dams in California with the Oroville dam disaster among many dams that have fallen in disrepair and in danger of failing we have to ask the question does California Governor Jerry Brown want the Oroville Dam to fail?
Restoring Rivers: American Rivers Announces 51 Dam Removals in 2013, Builds New Interactive Map
On Wednesday the nonprofit group American Rivers announced its list of outdated or unsafe U.S. dams removed in 2013 to restore rivers, tallying 51 projects undertaken by communities in 18 states working with nonprofit groups and state and federal agencies.
American Rivers says it had a hand in 25 of the 2013 dam removals, but tracks all removals, and is the only organization to do so. According to the group, the top states for dam removal last year were Pennsylvania (12), Oregon (eight), New Jersey (four), and, with three apiece, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Vermont. About 1,150 dams have been removed since 1912, with most of those deconstructions occurring in the past 20 years.
Why remove dams? There are tens of thousands of them in the U.S., and quite a few are old, unsafe or no longer serve their intended purpose. As former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt once said, “on average, we have constructed one dam every day since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.” Removing them, especially those that no longer do enough for us (e.g., generating adequate amounts of reasonably clean hydropower), can restore river health, clean water, and fish and wildlife, and improve public safety and recreation. See a more complete list of reasons here.
To accompany the 2013 list, American Rivers launched an interactive map that includes all known dam removals in the United States as far back as 1936. The map features the name of the dam and river, location, year the dam was removed, and a description.
“For the first time ever, we have an interactive map that shows every dam removal that has ever happened in the U.S.,” said Devin Dotson, American Rivers’ associate director of communications. “There aren’t many things that have such a big impact on a river as a dam. They block a river, they can hurt clean water, they can hurt fish, they can hurt wildlife. American Rivers has pioneered a science-based approach to the removal of outdated dams.”
Read more from AmericanRivers.org:
51 dams removed to restore rivers in 2013
New interactive map: all known U.S. dam removals since 1936
Making hydropower safe for rivers
Babbitt Says Removing Dam Is A Top Priority
Environment: Secretary of Interior believes razing structure to help endangered fish, replenish beaches would set important precedent.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Friday he will make removal of Matilija Dam a top priority to save an imperiled migratory fish and restore sand flows to Ventura County beaches while also striking a blow against the nation’s larger dams.
The announcement brings home to Southern California a debate swirling around many of the nation’s 75,000 dams, which have been blamed for declining salmon and steelhead runs, coastal erosion and lost economic opportunities for outdoor recreation and commercial and sportfishing.
‘The time has come for dam removal,” Babbitt said. ‘This [Matilija] dam is really an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of dam removal in a way that’s available nowhere else. Based on what I’ve heard, I support removal of this dam. This one is right at the top of the priority list.”
Babbitt’s remarks signal that the once-obscure dam tucked into a canyon in the mountains behind Ojai has gained high-level attention at the White House and in Congress. He said he decided the dam should be a priority for dismantling following meetings this week in Washington with California members of Congress and Ventura County officials.
Although Interior Department agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation, have been studying ways to tear down Matilija Dam since summer, Babbitt’s comments mark the first time he has announced his plans for the structure.
“He’ll help move that project into high gear,” said Supervisor John Flynn, who along with Supervisor Kathy Long and Rep. Elton Gallegly, organized the meeting Monday. “To have him behind the project, how could you get anything better? I’m really excited about it.”
The 52-year-old dam was built to store drinking and agricultural water for the Ojai Valley and to reduce flood hazards on the Ventura River. Today, however, it is full of mud, provides little water and is crumbling. Though decaying sections have been removed, it still stands 190 feet tall and 620 feet wide.
Environmentalists want it torn down so southern steelhead, an endangered species, can reach high quality spawning habitat upstream in Matilija Creek. Also, about 6.1 million cubic yards of sediment, essential to replenish sand-starved beaches from Ventura to Port Hueneme, are locked behind the dam. Groups pressing for the dam’s removal include anglers, surfers, seaside homeowners and business people. California’s Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein also favor its removal.
“Along the West Coast, Matilija Dam is one of the most important to remove because of the pressing need to recover steelhead. It’s emblematic of the broader problem of dams and man-made structures that have outlived their usefulness,” said Andrew Fahlund, policy director at nonprofit American Rivers Inc.
In the past two years, Babbitt has toured the nation’s rivers and streams, sledgehammer in hand, taking symbolic whacks at small dams marked for removal. At least 122 dams have been breached in the 1990s across the United States.
“He’s taken out a whole bunch of dams, but they have all been 3 to 17 feet tall,” said Mark Capelli, executive director of Friends of the Ventura River. ‘[Matilija] would be the highest dam ever removed in the United States.”
Babbitt said he believes that removing Matilija Dam could open a political breach that will make it easier to knock down some of the nation’s largest, most environmentally troublesome dams. In Washington state, for example, Congress authorized removal of two other big dams, the Elwha and Glines, but political haggling has delayed those projects.
“This is a big dam, this is the first of a kind for removal. We have an opportunity to use this as a demonstration, a model,” Babbitt said. He added that the apparent unanimous support for the dam’s removal in Ventura County is key to carrying the project to a conclusion.
But razing the dam won’t be easy. Engineers have yet to figure out a way to move all the sand stuck behind Matilija Dam down the river to the ocean without increasing flood risk in west Ventura and Casitas Springs.
And the costs of removal may be extraordinary. Although new estimates are being developed, past studies have estimated the cost at between $3 million and $150 million, although most officials say $80 million is a reasonable estimate. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Geological Survey and Army Corps of Engineers are conducting studies on how to remove the dam.
If those investigations and subsequent environmental studies produce no major surprises, Babbitt said he is confident local, state and federal governments can find the money to remove the dam, perhaps within two years, although he declined to elaborate.
“We need to get the study back to make sure there are no insoluble problems, then work on financing issues,” Babbitt said.
Babbitt said he has never seen Matilija Dam, but he plans to visit Ventura County by the end of the year to meet with local officials and tour the structure.
“Now that this is on his radar scope, that is one more ally we have,” Gallegly said. ‘We’re all working together to accomplish the same thing.”
