Conservation groups criticize California water board’s side deals for Delta water

BY SUZANNE POTTER, PRODUCER, PUBLIC NEWS SESERVICE

The State Water Board now says it will take another two years to finalize the San FranciscoSan Joaquin Delta water management plan, and it is proceeding with voluntary agreements with water agencies in the meantime.

Conservation groups spoke out at a workshop held by the board late last week - and some are asking the board to scrap the voluntary agreements.

Ashley OverhouseCalifornia water policy advisor with Defenders of Wildlife - said a new plan to put more water into the estuary is crucial since four species of native fish have made the federal endangered species list since 1992, bringing the total to 6.

“When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands, grabbed the weapon and we had a struggle. We struggled into the lobby, trying to get this gun away from each other. He was hitting me across the face, bashing the back of my head.”

Tsay said he used his elbows to try to dislodge the gun from the man’s hands, and eventually after a life-or-death struggle, he managed to grab the weapon and point it at the man. He said he yelled at the man to “get the hell out of here,” threatening to shoot.

“I thought he would run away, but he was just standing there contemplating whether to fight or to run,” Tsay said. “I really thought I would have to shoot him and he came at me. This is when he turned around and walked out the door, jogged back to his van. I immediately called police with the gun still in my hand.”

Tsay said he did not recognize the gunman. He was left shaken by the violent encounter.

“I was shaking all night. I couldn’t believe what happened,” he told ABC.

“A lot of people have been telling me how much courage I had to confront a situation like this. But you know what courage is? Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to have adversity to fear when fearful events happen such as this.

“In crises like this, the people need courage, especially the victims, their friends, their families. My heart goes out to everybody involved, especially the people in Star Dance Studio and Monterey Park. I hope they can find the courage and the strength to persevere.”

He has been hailed by a hero by local authorities and state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, with whom Tsay met earlier this week.

The Alhambra Lunar New Year Festival was held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Main Street, featuring music, dance performances, cultural performances and other activities

The event will also included a remembrance ceremony to honor the victims of the Monterey Park shooting, which occurred following that city’s Lunar New Year Festival. Organizers noted that in light of the shooting, Sunday’s festival will be “slightly more subdued” than usual.

“Creating community is an important goal under any circumstance,”

John Bwarie, CEO of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “Now we find that the ties between us matter most, because we can face this tragedy together and rise above it. We invite everyone in Southern California to celebrate the new year with us in Alhambra and show our strength and faith in the future.”

Alhambra city officials issued a statement last week saying the festival would go forward despite the Monterey Park tragedy, and public safety will be a main focus.

“The safety of our community is paramount,” according to the city and Chamber of Commerce. “As such, additional resources from the Alhambra Police Department will be present. We look forward to our celebration and our community coming together.” water quality. Multiple water agencies pump water from the delta and send it to the farms of the Central Valley and to cities in Southern California.

Other agencies are resisting entreaties to release more water into the delta. The group representing public water agencies, the State Water Contractors, spoke out in favor of the board’s decision to move forward with the voluntary agreements.

Overhouse said the whole process has dragged on far too long.

Disclosure: Defenders of Wildlife contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Endangered Species & Wildlife, Energy Policy, Public Lands/Wilderness. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit https://www. publicnewsservice.org/dn1. php.

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“At this point, we’re trying to avoid extinction for most native fish populations that rely on the Bay-Delta,” said Overhouse. “We’re talking about not just delta smelt, we’re talking about all runs of salmon, longfin smelt, and sturgeon. They would be completely wiped out.”

Over-pumping of freshwater, pollution and climate change contribute to poor

“One of the reasons why this has been held up is due to political reasons,” said Overhouse. “Water agencies have delayed the planning process significantly in order to negotiate the amount of water that they would have to release.”

The water board is taking public comment on the report that establishes the scientific basis for the voluntary agreements, now through Feb. 8.

The Bay-Delta plan is supposed to be updated every three years but the last major update took place in 1995.

DRAFT SCIENTIFIC BASIS REPORT...IN SUPPORT OF PROPOSED VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS FOR THE...SAN FRANCISCO BAY/SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA... the (California) State Water Resources Control Board 1/1/23

NOTICE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND BOARD WORKSHOP ON DRAFT SCIENTIFIC BASIS REPORT... the (California) State Water Resources Control Board 1/10/23

FRAMEWORK OF VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS... the (California) State Water Resources Control Board 2/4/20

NOTICE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND BOARD WORKSHOP ON DRAFT SCIENTIFIC BASIS REPORT... the (California) State Water Resources Control Board 1/5/23 forms for accuracy. This is not the case in the U.S.

Switching to such a system would devastate tax prep company profits. That’s why Intuit and other members of the industry spent millions through the years lobbying to preserve the Free File agreement, particularly the part that restricts the IRS from creating its own free filing system.

That’s not all Intuit did to limit the scope of Free File. Intuit purposefully suppressed its own Free File product. It added website code to block its Free File page from showing up in search engines and used manipulative marketing patterns to trick customers into paying for TurboTax even when they qualified for Free File. It later removed the code.

Internal documents previously obtained by ProPublica show these strategies were intentional on the part of Intuit and H&R Block.

In previous statements, Intuit and H&R Block maintained that they support and encourage free tax filing options through Free File and other avenues within their businesses.

ProPublica’s Reporting Impact

As ProPublica reported on Intuit and the Free File program, government officials took note.

When ProPublica pointed out that codifying the existing Free File agreement into law would permanently bar the IRS from creating its own free filing system, the bill got new scrutiny in Congress and the restriction on an IRS-created filing system was scrapped.

Senior IRS leadership and a New York state regulator began investigating Intuit and the Free File program. The Federal Trade Commission started investigating Intuit too, looking into the company’s allegedly deceptive marketing practices.