Restore the Delta is a campaign, based in Stockton, California that advocates for restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta also known as the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. It began in 2006 working towards education and outreach to help Californians recognize the Delta as part of California's heritage. Currently, they are up to 40,000 members throughout California of both residents and various organizations working towards the same goal.
About the delta
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is made up of the North flowing San-Joaquin river and the South flowing Sacramento river that come together in the central valley. It is one of the most unique and largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of the United States. These waters support, fisheries, migrating water fowl, 500,000 acres of farm land, a community of over 4 million people and many other ecosystems.
Mission
Restore the Delta thrives to save the Seacramento-San Joaquin Delta for current and future generations. They want the waters of the Delta to be swimmable, fishable, drinkable, and farmable. To achieve this, they advocate for local stakeholders to directly impact water management and sustainability decisions in order to benefit Californians and their communities.
Harmful algal blooms are an issue in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. There are 6 conditions that cause these blooms to occur, nutrient loads from discharge, warm water, still water, bright sunlight, glyphosates, and reduced freshwater flows. In order to bring awareness they have created a and a , outlining details about how HABs can effect water quality and what can be done to help.
Abandoned vessels
Abandoned vessels can be a large issue for water ways for both navigational and environmental purposes. These vessels can cause pollutants through oil, antifreeze, fuel and other toxic materials. They destroy habitats for marine life and cause harm to drinking water.
Others
Restore the Delta also brings awareness to a number of other issues, including flood control, illegal dumping, homeless encampments on water ways and California wildfires.
Accomplishments
Stockton Environmental Justice Initiative
Restore the Delta along with a number of other partners worked with Cal EPA to develop the Stockton Justice Initiative. Through their collective efforts, they were able to determine a number of issues in their community including, illegal dumping, air pollution near schools, and odorous and discolored drinking water. One of the main community efforts Restore the Delta is supporting is Illegal Dumping- Mattress Recycling.
Delta Tunnels
The California Water Fix and Eco Restore proposed the building of two large tunnels that would carry water from the Sacramento River under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and towards the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. For 12 years, Restore the Delta fought against this development due to the numerous issues it could cause. The impacts included the displacement of hundred of wildlife and plant species, negative impacts on fisheries, recreation and tourism in the San Francisco Bay and the Delta, damages to the agricultural economy and on water quality. With this development water salinity, HABs, group A pesticides, methyl mercury, and selenium would all increase into dangerous levels. Thankfully, when Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in January 2019, he got rid of the plans for the twin tunnels. Gov. Newsom introduced the "" and requires agencies to "conduct extensive outreach to inform this process". This prompted the introduction of Restore the Delta's Climate Equity and Seismic Resilience for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.
Climate equity and seismic resilience for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary
This report found that Delta levees are an important aspect and are currently not in a great condition. The levees offer the protection needed to help with increased flooding from climate change to protect the residents in the communities, which often struggle to recover from flooding. Due to an increase in permafrost thawing, peat soil fires, and extreme loss of ice sheets in Antartica and Greenland, sea level rise continues to be an issue. Other climate change issues include, extreme flood events, reduced runoff, higher water temperatures, reduced freshwater flows and reduced amounts of water.
After determining their findings, recommendations were made to help improve the Delta. These included:
Understanding that the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary is a single entity and any policies made must cover the entire Estuary.
Any projects under the portfolio should be "no regrets" in regards to actions and investments that protects lives and property while also considering regional water self-sufficiency.
Before a tunnel is constructed, any regional projects should already be determined. One modeling begins, sea level rise, storm surge, and flood flows should be taken into account with regards to both the North Delta intakes and South Delta pumps.
The modeling should also include a variety of tunnel operational scenarios in regards to different levels of water quality and diminished amount of river inflow.
The current levees should be upgraded to ensure they meet seismic, flood and sea level stressors whether or not a tunnel is implemented.
Integrating the state environmental justice policy with current flood protection planning and using creative and cost effective methods.
In October 2012, Restore the Delta released a short documentary titled "Over Troubled Waters" about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It was directed by Russel Fisher and Jason Sturgis. It was produced by Barbara Barrigan-Parilla and written by Jane Wagner Tyack. The film was narrated by Ed Begley Jr. and is around 45 minutes long. This documentary explores the different policies and decisions that have led to the problems that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faces today. It shows where it began with the state and federal water projects, which promoted industrial agriculture, at the expense of habitats, farming, fisheries and communities in both the Delta region and Northern California. It goes through interviews with both farmers and fishermen whose lives have been changed for the worse. Other interviews include, people who maintain the levees, people who recreate in the delta, and people who know the significance of the fish within the ecosystem. Throughout the documentary, it refutes claims made by those of higher power that attempt to justify causing California taxpayers and water ratepayers almost $20 billion. The film ends with ideas on how Californians can moved away from the reliance on the Delta and still gain more water security. The documentary can be found .
