New Access Issues Arising For Bay Area Water Sports Users

The most important part about enjoying water sports is getting access to the water. With that said it's important to stay in tune with changes and make sure our voices are heard when change is a foot. That time is now.

Thankfully we have a lot of folks in our community who are alert and two new issues have popped up that require you to pay attention. First up is a major redevelopment of Crissy Fields' East Beach. While we appreciate the intent of the groups that control Crissy Field we would only hope they would be more inclusive in getting new plans designed. Unfortunately it seems this latest redesign process was not all that inclusive and with out jumping in to the politics of it all we need your help in mobilizing our voices. The proposed Crissy plan is below. The plan has some signiifcant funding from the Haas family so I hope we can convey our thanks for their intent, but get the effort redirected to a more community driven effort.

We are not in support of this plan. It was developed with little to no input from those who use the park. In addition promises were made during the last major development effort, some 15 years ago, that any future redevelopment efforts would be inclusive of all the impacted user communities. Sadly that was not honored. We are very appreciative of the Haas donation, and hope that through a more inclusive process we can use the money to make Crissy Field even better. Here's what we need from you. Please fill out the public comment form - click here to get the form.

Please note your feelings that this effort must be inclusive of all the impacted communities and not done in a vacuum. Detailed designs can be found here.

Here is the comment we used on the form - "Thank you for intent to improve Crissy Field. A thanks as well to the Haas family for the donation. With that said the current plan was not developed in a manner that is congruent with how the park is used. The plan needs to be revisited after including the groups that actually use the park. In previous development efforts promises were made that all changes would be reviewed together as a community. This was not the case with this current set of changes. Given the iconic nature of the park it's important that the development reflects the community in which it lives. Thanks for your consideration."

One group we should all be thankful for is the San Francisco Boardsailing Association (SFBA). While the group was originally founded to promote access rights for windsurfers they have morphed over time to represent most all users of the San Francisco Bay we love. The SFBA has fought on many fronts with one of their biggest triumphs coming at Crissy Fields East Beach durring a major redevelopment there in the past. Please consider joining or donating to the SFBA.

Issue number two is the new "Delta Tunnels" Project offered up by the State of California. Here's an outline from the petiion we are asking you to sign below. Gov. Brown has proposed massive underground water export tunnels now called the "California Water Fix" though it is essentially the same project as the peripheral canal, which California voters rejected in 1982 by a 62.7% majority.

The tunnels could grab the Sacramento River, which is the main supply of fresh water in the Delta and San Francisco Bay estuary. About 30 percent of water exported from the Delta goes to cities. But Big Ag on the southwest side of the San Joaquin Valley get about 70 percent of Delta water, which mostly goes to grow water intensive almonds and pistachios on unsustainable desert soils for lucrative overseas exports.

The Tunnels plan would be devastating to the ecology and economy of the San Francisco Bay-Delta region. The plan also ignores shovel-ready urban and rural projects that would create local jobs and enhance water sustainability for the future.

The Delta Tunnels will also fail to provide a more reliable water because the Delta watershed is already oversubscribed by five times in normal water years. " The project could devestate water sports in the Delta area.

Sign the Petition to Stop the Delta Tunnels

More information (courtesy the research of James McGrath)

Start here: http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/centralvalley/water_issues/delta_water_quality/comprehensive_monitoring_program/

More here, although DWR is the entity shipping water out of the delta: - http://www.water.ca.gov/bdma/meta/continuous.cfm

Much better, and more independent monitoring can be found here:- http://www.sfei.org/rmp