Remedy for Delta salt that affects SoCal drinking water

Salt has been a problem for years in the California Delta, and state officials are embarking on what could be a decades-long mission for a low-salt south estuary that will help farmers whose crops suffer as well as Californians who rely on drinking water pumped from the region.

UPDATE: Jan 23, 2007
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/01/23/18350955.php

"In Senator Simitian’s proposed SB27, a peripheral canal bill, would finish off the California Delta as we know it...water would be diverted directly from the Sacramento River through pumps to contractors and municipal users in Southern California without passing through and refreshing the Delta first. These fresh water flows, set at 2006 water export levels, would be diverted from ever entering the California Delta, thereby permanently altering Delta water quality in ways that would finish off our fragile pelagic fisheries and that would also bring great harm to Delta area agriculture.

And if freshwater is diverted from the Delta for direct delivery to Southern California, Delta area needs such as an ongoing and sustained levee maintenance program, emergency preparedness for catastrophic events, protection of local agriculture, wildlife, and habitat, and planning for sea level rise all become secondary in importance. Why? Because water reliability will be secured for the more populated portions of the state at the expense of local Delta stakeholders.

CONTACT:
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Campaign Director
Restore the Delta
Making the Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable by 2010!
Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org
http://www.restorethedelta.org
ph: 209-479-2053
PO Box 691088
Stockton, CA 95269