Despite over 10,000 letters submitted to the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District opposing the purchase of five Delta islands, a 54 percent majority of the board's 29 directors on May 10 defeated a motion to withdraw from the purchase.
In an email, Metropolitan spokesman Bob Muir told www.courthousenews.com, "No other board action or future consideration is expected."
Restore the Delta President Joan Buchanan explained to the MET Board that their annual payments for the loan to purchase the Delta islands really covers the costs of interest only; they have not budgeted repayment toward the principal.
“The Delta Islands purchase is a $175 million boondoggle for MET customers,” said Buchanan. “The water rights attached to the islands do not allow transfers to Southern California. That means MET customers will pay the entire cost of the Delta Island purchase, all future maintenance of the levees, and other maintenance expenses for the islands.”
“We are not surprised or discouraged,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), after the vote. “Metropolitan Water District cannot continue its policies of taking resources from the Delta without public scrutiny with the legislative call for an audit of the state's financing of the tunnels project. Plus, the litigation against the purchase continues.”
Besides Buchanan, Esperanza Vielma, of Café Coop, a nonprofit assisting young entrepreneurs in San Joaquin County, and Restore the Delta board member Larry Ruhstaller spoke against the purchase at the meeting.
“We ask that you look at the dissenting votes of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Monica -- water districts that recognize that real water security for Southern California will be achieved through conservation, storm water capture, recycling, local infrastructure upgrades, and new water technologies that will put more water back into Southern California,” said Vielma.
“Statewide, water investments should continue some of the great projects I have seen in Southern California that have dramatically cut the amount of water you need to import from so far away. Buying islands in the San Francisco Bay-Delta is not a good use of your ratepayer’s dollars," said Ruhlstaller.
The proposed purchase of islands by the Metropolitan Water District has been very controversial, especially since purchase is seen by Delta and public trust advocates as a water and land grab to facilitate the construction of the giant tunnels under the estuary.
The rapidly collapsing Delta Tunnels proposal, considered by many to be potentially the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history, has yet to receive any permits from the federal permitting agencies and may be delayed or cancelled.
For more details about the Metropolitan Water District decision, go to: www.courthousenews.com/...