64 Delta Defenders speak before the State Water Resources Control Board on July 27

A big THANK YOU! to the 64 people who read their Policy Statements against the Tunnels diversion permit before the State Water Board on July 27, and to the 130+ additional people (and counting) who submitted Policy Statements in writing!

Artist Greg Kondos and his wife Moni opened the hearing as the first speakers. Mr. Kondos’ beautiful paintings of the Sacramento River were projected overhead and became the perfect backdrop. Our speakers covered a wide range of topics, from the beauty of the Delta to the cohesion of our communities to technical details about water quality, wells, drainage, soils, construction impacts and much more. The impacts are many, and the speakers covered most of them. Journalist Dan Bacher gave an excellent and concise (3 minutes!) argument against the tunnels. You can read an edited version here. Keep it in your hip pocket for the next time you need a quick recap on the tunnels.

Restore the Delta watched us live and tweeted about our Statements, as they did for all the hearings held last week.  They have more than 3200 followers on their Twitter feed, so our Statements reached a wide audience. Check out their Twitter feed @RestoretheDelta. Thanks to Barbara Barrigan and her team!

You can watch the video of the July 27 hearing here. You can see all of the recorded hearings videos here. You can see the schedule of upcoming hearings and watch live here.

Thanks to photojournalist Victoria Sheridan who captured the hearings – both the speaking portion and the breaks – in a beautiful series of black and white images. You can see a slideshow here. Be sure to read the captions.

Thanks also to Moni Kondos for organizing ten well-known Delta artists who submitted written Policy Statements along with examples of their paintings of the Delta. Who better than the artists to speak to “the Delta as Place?”

Thank you EVERYONE – you made the day a resounding success!