More than 900 people packed a Modesto hearing, “most of them determined to stop the state’s plan” to roughly double the flow on the lower Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers from February to June each year, says the Modesto Bee. “Farmers and wataer managers said the plan would put people out of work while doing little for fish.”
The state Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to hold the last of five hearing on its plan on Jan. 3 in Sacramento and make a decision, possibly in July, on its proposal. The board says the higher flow rates would mean a 14 percent decline in river water supplies on average, rising to 30 percent in dry years and 38 percent in critically dry years.
Proponents said the plan will help salmon and other fish that have suffered from decades of water diversions, said the Bee. Dairy farmer Duane Marson said, “There’s not a person who lives in this area who will not be harmed by this proposal.” A walnut and olive grower, Don Barton, “charged that the state is looking at the three rivers to replace Sacramento River water that Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to divert from the Delta via the ‘twin tunnels’ plan.” Felicia Marcus, chair of the water board, says the projects are separate.