Category Archives: ECOS comment letters

Comments regarding sufficiency of South American Groundwater Sustainability Plan

April 15, 2022

Here is a summary of our comments:
1) We find the climate change analysis used as the basis for the GSP is not sufficiently robust to reflect currently anticipated climate change conditions for the region. The analysis does not reflect current science. For this reason, we suggest DWR provide more direction in this area for future GSP updates.
2) We believe a review of the GSP utilizing Article 6, Section 355.4 finds the plan deficient in several important areas. Our findings are listed in more detail below. DWR should work with the subbasin GSAs to address the shortcomings described below before approving the GSP.

Click here to read the letter in full.

ECOS Letter to Sac County re Climate Action Plan

On March 23rd, 2022, Sacramento County held a workshop on their CLimate Action Plan. ECOS, Sierra Club, 350 Sacramento, as well as several other organizations and many residents, provided testimony during the workshop.

ECOS submitted a letter preceding the meeting, stating:

We’re grateful for the effort that County staff has made developing this CAP draft. However, it doesn’t address the biggest change we need to make: we need to increase housing in ways that don’t increase commute distances and thereby make our air and climate less healthy.

Click here to read our letter in full.

ECOS Letter re City of Sac Transportation Priorities Plan

On March 15, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento regarding their Transportation Priorities Plan. Below is an excerpt from our letter.

ECOS recommends:
1) The schedule for developing the TPP plan should be accelerated so projects can be eligible for funding sooner and built sooner.
2) SacRT’s transit system should be the backbone around which the City’s transportation projects are selected, to make existing transit station areas and transit corridors more walkable and livable. This approach is consistent with state law (SB375, SB743), regional policies (SACOG Blueprint, Green Means Go), and it would enable the leveraging of federal grants.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Comments re Sacramento’s Transportation Priorities Plan

On March 14, 2022, ECOS, along with several other environmental groups, submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento about the City’s Transportation Priorities Plan.

Once again, we write to implore you to act swiftly to take comprehensive and bold action to transform transportation in the City and the region. Such a transformation is nonnegotiable if we are to begin to respond to the imminent threat of climate change; it is also essential in fostering equity, addressing traffic safety, increasing the livability of our neighborhoods, and improving air quality.

Just a few weeks ago the Council held a workshop titled Climate and Transportation. Yet the Transportation Priorities Plan before you, which proposes analyzing 700 transportation projects that have been proposed by council members over the past twenty years, would appear to adopt the status quo and does not establish addressing climate change as one of the criteria. Our city is in dire need of a transportation plan that reflects the current century. Again, we urge you to direct your City Manager to set aside staff and resources to develop and implement a comprehensive active transportation and public transit framework for the city.

Click here to read our letter in full.

ECOS Letter of support for transportation improvements at Sac Valley Station

February 25, 2022

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) supports the application by Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) to the 2022 Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) grant program. The transportation investments proposed in the application are key to achieving the interconnectivity goals of the California State Rail Plan, and GHG reductions required by local policies and state legislation.

Click here to read our letter.