The battle to stop the proposed peripheral canal more than 25 years ago was an important turning point in California water history. Save The Bay played a lead role exposing the threat the canal posed to San Francisco Bay, galvanizing a large coalition to defeat it at the ballot box.
Today, a new process is underway to determine the Delta's fate. The Delta Reform Act of 2009 charged a new Bay Delta Stewardship Council with developing a plan to provide "a more reliable water supply for California" while also "protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem." The scope of this process today is enormous, and it could ultimately permit one of the largest and most expensive public works projects in our state's history.
Our quality of life and economy depend on a healthy San Francisco Bay, and a healthy San Francisco Bay depends in large part on fresh water from the Delta. The Governor has announced a Delta tunnel plan that Congressional leaders have denounced as “reckless” and “a bad deal for Northern California.” Save The Bay shares these serious concerns and is working to raise them as part of a broad environmental coalition of over 200 environmental, tribal, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations.
In the News
February 19, 2013: Delta pipes pitch less than perfect.
July 26, 2012: Groups, California members of Congress react to ‘peripheral tunnel’ plan
March 30, 2012: Prestigious panel agrees: Delta is stressed, with no easy fix
Save The Bay's Previous Accomplishments for the Bay-Delta
2003
Won litigation to force the U.S. Department of Interior to provide an additional 800,000 acre-feet of fresh water annually into the Bay-Delta, as mandated by the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992.
1994
Helped broker a negotiated settlement of California’s "water wars," the Bay-Delta Accord, which led to the adoption of new state standards for protection of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.
1992
Save The Bay and a coalition of organizations united as "Share the Water" helped draft and win enactment of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. Authored by Rep. George Miller and Senator Bill Bradley, and signed by President George Bush, the law is one of the most significant water policy reforms in California history.
1986
Submitted a key brief in state court to protect the Bay-Delta Estuary, resulting in the Racanelli decision, regulating the amount of water diverted from the Delta and adjoining river systems.
1982
Campaigned to defeat the Peripheral Canal at the state ballot box, protecting the Delta from additional detrimental fresh water diversion.