Comments re American River Basin Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Update

Posted on January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Alexandra Reagan

On January 11, 2019, the Environmental Council of Sacramento and Habitat 2020, sent comments regarding the 2018 update of the American River Basin Integrated Regional Water Management Plan.

Below is the content of our letter in full.

Richard M. Johnson (Sent via email to johnsonr [at] saccounty [dot] net)
Executive Director of Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
1007 7th St, 7th floor
Sacramento 95814

Subject: 2018 update of the American River Basin Integrated Regional Water Management Plan

Dear Mr. Johnson,

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS), a 501c3 organization, and Habitat 2020, the Conservation Committee of ECOS, are partner coalitions dedicated to protecting the natural resources of the greater Sacramento region while building healthier, more equitable, economically thriving communities. ECOS-Habitat 2020 member organizations include: 350 Sacramento, AARP, Breathe California-Sacramento Emigrant Trails, Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, International Dark-Sky Association, Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, Mutual Housing California, Physicians for Social Responsibility Sacramento Chapter, Sacramento Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association, Sacramento Green Democrats, Sacramento Housing Alliance, Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, Sacramento Audubon Society, Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Sacramento Vegetarian Society, Save Our Sandhill Cranes, Save the American River Association, Sierra Club Sacramento Group, Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk, and the Sacramento Area Creeks Council.

We are heartened by the extensive work the Sacramento Area Flood Control Authority (SAFCA) and the Regional Water Authority (RWA) are doing to improve the Sacramento Region’s water reliability, security, and flood protection. The 2018 update of the American River Basin Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (“Plan”) includes SAFCA’s efforts to improve Regional flood control, provide for storm water management, and develop excess storm water recharge opportunities all in the face of increasing storm intensity and frequency due to the impacts of climate change. We are especially interested in SAFCA’s efforts to develop and promote the potential beneficial uses of excess storm water that moves down both the American and Cosumnes Rivers. Like SAFCA, we would like to see some of this water captured to restore aquifer levels and stored in the Region’s Subbasins for future use during periods of drought. SAFCA is commended for its success in securing the financial resources required to carry out its programs and projects in this vitally important area of flood protection.

We understand that one of the next steps to acquiring this excess storm water recharge resource is to complete a thorough analysis of where within the Region the prime recharge and extraction zones are located. This analysis should include the area(s) compatibility with existing land usage and water management/conveyance constraints. We understand that Dr. Graham Fogg of UC Davis is preparing a project plan to carry out this analysis and that SAFCA has already held discussions with the Cosumnes Subbasin GSAs on this same topic. A project or projects to carry out this work in both the South American and the Cosumnes Subbasins should be a high priority for inclusion within the Plan, and again, we hope that SAFCA will take a leadership role in working with the UC Davis Water Group and the appropriate GSAs to fund this important work.

We understand that RWA is preparing to engage in a public awareness campaign to convey to elected officials, agency decision makers, opinion leaders, and the public, the importance of the projects and activities identified in the Plan and how they lay out a prudent path for the region’s water future. SAFCA’s efforts will certainly be prominently featured in this public outreach effort. We hope to participate with SAFCA and RWA in this campaign. ECOS/Habitat 2020 represents most of the environmental and community-based groups in the Region and has strong ties with conservation and other public interest groups as well.

We note with keen interest the efforts SAFCA and others are making to work with the Sacramento Central Groundwater Authority (SCGA) and the Cosumnes Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to join with the North American Subbasin GSAs to develop and adopt a comprehensive American River Basin descriptive modeling system (SacIWRM). The region wide adoption of SacIWRM will ensure accurate accounting and impact assessment of both recharge and pumping operations and accurately describe the flows and elevations of groundwater through and between each Subbasin. The SacIWRM will enable each Subbasin’s GSAs to adopt Subbasin management plans that are capable of responding to delayed changes within the Subbasin due to pumping and recharge operations, and respond to GDE and other triggers requiring GSA actions. We understand that SAFCA has volunteered to pay the additional costs the Cosumnes Subbasin GSAs will incur to ensure SacIWRM meets the Cosumnes Subbasin needs. We strongly hope that that the Cosumnes Subbasin GSAs will adopt the SacIWRM model and, if needed, accept SAFCA’s generous financial offer. We will engage with SAFCA and RWA in any way practical to assist in accomplishing this objective.

ECOS/Habitat 2020 stand ready to work collaboratively with SAFCA to communicate the importance of regional water security including appropriate storm water management, recharge, and flood protection; and the plans and projects that best lead the region toward this goal. We stand ready to meet with you and your staff to further explore these points and how we may assist in your Agency’s efforts to effect a comprehensive water security investment that can actually benefit the environment. If need be, please contact Robert Burness at rmburness [at] comcast [dot] net or 916-956-0365.
Sincerely,

Robert C. Burness
Co-chair of Habitat 2020

Ralph Propper
Board President of ECOS

CC via email: Tim Washburn, Director of Planning, SAFCA, washburnr [at] saccounty [dot] net

Read the letter in PDF by clicking here.

A Note From Our Treasurer: ECOS Needs Your Support

Posted on January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Alexandra Reagan

January 11, 2019

Dear Friend,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I want to highlight some of the Environmental Council of Sacramento’s (ECOS) accomplishments last year, inform you about our plans for the New Year, and ask for your continued financial support—because ECOS would not exist without support from local environmental stewards like you.
We need your support. Please consider becoming a member – better yet with a recurring monthly donation of ten or twenty bucks a month (less than the price of going out to dinner!). You can become a dues-paying member and support our community by clicking here: https://www.ecosacramento.net/membership-account/membership/.

We accomplished a lot in 2018:
· ECOS wins lawsuit securing light rail funding. ECOS secured $40.5 million for the Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail system by settling our lawsuit challenging the Caltrans Environmental Impact Report for the Capital City Freeway Improvement Project. This money will be used to complete double tracking to Folsom, purchase low floor train cars, and resume evening service on the Gold Line.
· ECOS organizes 29th annual Earth Day. On April 22, 2018, ECOS hosted Sacramento’s annual Earth Day celebration in Southside Park—the largest annual environmental event in Sacramento County. This event now draws over 3,000 visitors to live music, 150 nonprofit and crafts vendor booths, and the largest electric vehicle display and test-drive event in the Sacramento region. Thanks to our partners the Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association and Charge Across Town, some 40 different electric vehicle models were displayed by owners and several hundred test-drives were conducted by regional EV dealers.
· ECOS advocates for underserved communities. In 2018, ECOS advocated for environmental protection in green spaces occupied by Sacramento’s growing homeless population and for expanded homeless services and transitional housing. In addition, ECOS established an Environmental Justice Committee within our organization to identify the priorities of underserved communities and help build networks in support of our mutual environmental interests, including the expansion of public transit, affordable infill housing, and living wages.
· Housing, housing, housing. With the economy continuing to improve, land use projects of increasing size and adverse environmental impact were proposed in Sacramento County last year. If the region does not accommodate the new urban housing market, sprawl will continue, threatening whatever habitat, agriculture and open space is left. So we have also paid a great deal of attention to the intensification of urban development in the region’s cities (Elk Grove, Roseville, Sacramento, Galt, Citrus Heights, West Sacramento, etc.) where the new urban housing market could be focused.

In 2019, ECOS will focus on future transportation funding options, Phase 2 hearings on the California WaterFix, local electric vehicle roll-out, environmental justice group empowerment, and local implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act next year. You can support our work by becoming a member: https://www.ecosacramento.net/membership-account/membership/.

As you know, we are a small, local organization that operates on a shoestring budget and depends on the financial support of community members like you. ECOS does a lot with a little: we have an annual budget of just thousands of dollars; with more members and an expanded budget, we can serve the community better. We know you receive requests from many organizations and hope our decades of dedicated community service and proven success earn us a spot on your list. As always, we would be extremely grateful for your support.

Happy New Year!

Best Regards,

Earl Withycombe, ECOS Treasurer

P.S. There are many ways to support ECOS. Beyond your annual donation we encourage you to become a monthly sustainer, which give us the financial stability to do more. You can do this by visiting our website (https://www.ecosacramento.net/), and then clicking on “Donate” under “Support ECOS”. We also welcome volunteers for every aspect of our work – you’ll have fun and learn skills as you help our environment. Contact us at office [at] ecosacramento [dot] net.

ECOS/Habitat 2020 Comments on the Two Rivers Trail Phase II project

Posted on December 3, 2018December 28, 2018 by Alexandra Reagan

On November 30, 2018, the Habitat Committee of the Environmental Council of Sacramento submitted a letter to Tom Buford, Principal Planner, and Adam Randolph, Project Manager, with the Community Development Department of the City of Sacramento.

Habitat 2020 is a citizen coalition that works to protect the lands, waters, wildlife and native plants in the Sacramento region. It also serves as the Environmental Council of Sacramento’s Habitat & Conservation committee. The great Central Valley of California has been identified by the World Wildlife Fund as one of North America’s most endangered eco-regions. Preserving its remaining open space and agricultural land is essential for sustaining native plants and wildlife, and ensuring a high quality of life for ourselves and future generations. Members of Habitat 2020 include the Sacramento Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society, Friends of Swainson’s Hawk, Save the American River Association, Save Our Sandhill Cranes, Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter – Sacramento Group, Friends of Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, the International Dark-Sky Association and the Sacramento Area Creeks Council.
The American River Parkway is a unique and singularly important riparian habitat corridor in the County of Sacramento and is a rare remaining remnant of what was once a much more extensive riparian ecosystem in northern California. Any project to construct facilities within the Parkway and to increase human activities in the Parkway has impacts on the wildlife, habitat and plants of this corridor. This project would create 3.4 miles of new Class 1 bicycle and pedestrian trail primarily along the waterside levee toe west from Sutter’s Landing Regional Park to the Sacramento Northern Bikeway Trail at North 18th Street, and east from the eastern terminus of Sutter’s Landing Regional Park to the H Street Bridge. The trail would be 14-16 feet wide. As stated in the MND/IS, page 5, the project is proposed to be constructed largely in an area designated as “Protected Area” under the American River Parkway Plan, with habitat preservation and recreation-related activities being the primary uses. As stated on page 9, it is one of the objectives of the project to “Complete the project in a manner that minimizes environmental impacts to the Parkway, given the proposed project’s location within the environmentally sensitive Parkway.”
Our comments on the MND/IS focus on the conservation of the Parkway as natural habitat. Moreover, we support the mission of the Save the American River Association (SARA) and endorse (and incorporate by reference into our comments) all comments made by SARA on this MND/IS. Likewise, we endorse and incorporate comments made by the Friends of the River Banks and the Friends of Sutter Landing Park.
…

We request that the City draft and circulate a full EIR, considering alternatives to the project width and alignment, and significantly improving the mitigation measures for the project.

View the full letter by clicking here (PDF).

View more information about the project on the City’s website by clicking here.