Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who lives and farms in the Sacramento River Delta, addressed about 250 Delta residents, farmers, and elected officials at a July 7 Sacramento rally. The rally was to draw attention to the plan for the peripheral canal.
The peripheral canal http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=810 is a long waiting plan to build a canal, which skirts the Delta, to bring water to the remainder of California without requiring pumping from ecologically sensitive areas of the Delta. Supporters of the peripheral canal say the canal help the endangered habitats and animals of the Delta by allowing them to be less disturbed by pumping and manage flooding. Currently, the Sacramento River floods are contained by a system of privately built levees. Opponents of the peripheral canal say the canal will not protect habitat but could increase the backflow of seawater into the freshwater delta, and is a huge public works undertaking which requires massive amounts of funding and private land to be condemned to build the canal.
"Any discussion of a peripheral canal must follow a solid guarantee that protects the Delta economy and the terrestrial and aquatic environment of the Delta. The voice of the Delta must be embedded in any proposal to establish a system of governance in the Delta," said Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Delta resident.
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