| In 1988 the company(s)
that owned the Central Delta islands of Webb Tract, Boudin Island, Bacon
Island and Holland Tract proposed developing those islands to be used as
privately-owned water storage reservoirs. During spring, freshwater
runoff would be diverted into the islands and the water later pumped down to
the South Delta pumps for export to the SoCal farmers and developers who
proposed the In-Delta storage. DWR liked the idea enough to purchase
Statten Island in 2003 for possible In-Delta Storage. From 2000 to
2003 as part of the CalFed planning process, computer modeling was done as
part of the state's "surface storage investigation" studies. A final
report was printed in January 2004 regarding using two islands for water
storage and two for ecosystem "restoration" experiments. The report
was criticized because there were to many unknowns, such as how much carbon
would be released into the drinking water from the flooded islands, how
would the levees hold up, and what would be the effects on neighboring
islands. In April 2004, there was a meeting where a group of leaders
of the IDSP agreed to go forward with "field studies" for in-Delta storage.
On June 1, 2004 the Delta Cross Channel Gates (DCC) up above Walnut
Grove closed. When the DCC closes, less Sacramento River water is
diverted into the Mokelumnke
River for transport downstream to the export pumps. The DCC operations
log for 6/1/2004 specifically states "Jones Tract levee failure".
(See DCC log found at the Department of Interior website). However,
the media and DWR and everyone else has been reporting the Jones Tract as
happening on June 3, 2004. The "sunny day" levee break was used by the
proponents of Delta change in the media as an example of how "fragile" the
levees are.
(See Jones Tract Documents.)
Conveniently enough, there were scientists available on June 3rd who could
set up measuring equipment and monitor the process of a levee break, monitor
the effects on the interior of the flooded island, monitor how long it took
to flood the island, monitor the carbon and other peat soil effects of
mixing fresh water, and monitor the effect on the islands nearby.
Jones
Tract is right next to Bacon Island. Oddly enough, DWR modeling
records specifically state that the raw data for the Jones Tract studies
were entered as "baconisland".
Most of the In-Delta Storage planning documents
from 1988 to 2010 are listed or linked below. In November 2010 the
Delta Stewardship Council was asked to approve the use of the same islands
as an "interim project". Note that Bacon Island is also being
proposed as an "emergency water storage island" in case there is a flood, to
release pressure on other areas of the Delta. Of course, the reason
the dams above the Delta were made was to hold that water and reduce
pressure on the Delta. Now there are homes around some of those dams
and the homeowners don't like it when the water is low, so there is pressure
to hold the water for recreation instead of storage for transport....but
that is a different story.
Click or
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each. |
