The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • A15

OUTPUT: 16:27 USER: LMYRLAND MASTER 10-12-10 PAGE: A 15 MODESTO FINAL 15 BLACK YELLOWCYAN MAGENTA This is a tale oftwo trails. One, planned to run the full length of the city, is half completed, well used and costs in excess of $20 million. The other is on the (ahem) of the city, runs for just six blocks and would cost less than $1 million. This trail, sadly, has no construction to date, has raised less than 25 percent of its ultimate goal, and languishes for lack of funding and momentum, all the while the proceeds on schedule and in full use. I refer to the Helen White Memorial Trail, which is proposed to run along an unused and glass-strewn canal bank from California Street to Maze Boulevard.

Not only will this trail provide a safe place to walk for folks in a stress-filled neighborhood, but it will also allow students who must walk a comfortable and secure path to to Modesto High and Mark Twain Junior High. Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region Community Benefits Program has generously kicked off the campaign with a $200,000 pledge. Other, smaller pledges have been received, but commencement of construction awaits much more significant levels of giving before the project occurs. A committee spearheaded by Carole Collins has a number of prominent Modestans from all parts of the city, actively seeking donations to complete the project. The trail is name for Helen White, known as West for her long years of service and activism in the neighborhood in which she lived.

White worked for the county Public Housing Authority for more than 30 years and served on a host of city commissions, founded a club that provides scholarships to teens and was a foster mother to many kids in her neighborhood. There are more than 22,000 residents in the area who will be served by this trail. Recent data shows that 24 percent of West children are obese, and the trail will afford a much needed safe area for exercise and recreation. The trail as planned will havecontrolled access for greater security, and will be limited to bikes and pedestrians. It will be well lighted with shrubs and landscaping that will be attractive to look at but low enough to allow easy police surveillance.

Numerous neighbors have volunteered to swing hammers and wield shovels, providing for this trail, which they will claim as their own. In addition, students are asking if they can use community service hours to help build and maintain the trail. Now comes the hard part. How to raisethe other It seems to me that a community that can already find $10 million for the trail can surely scrape together less than a million dollars to complete this project. Think of it the entire cost of the west side trail is less than 5 percent of the Virginia Corridor trail.

Sadly, just last month a grant request to the Caltrans Safe Route to School program was denied at the same time five other Stanislaus cities received grants from this program. Further information, offers of assistance and contributions should be directed to Carole Collins at (209) 522-6902. Hagerty is an Oakdale real estate developer active in community nonprofits. Send comments or questions to BY STUART LEAVENWORTH Gov. Jerry Brown evoked spirit last month in advancing a plan to build a pair of gigantic water tunnels that would dramatically alter the plumbing of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The day before the governor and federal officials made their announcement, I spent some time with a delta farmer who is descended from Gold Rush pioneers. Doug Hemly and his family run a successful farm, Greene Hemly, that grows pears, apples, cherries and kiwis near Hood. His customers include Gerber, the baby food company. Yet Hemly and his family are unsure about the future of their 160-year-old enterprise. Their orchards, packing plant and family home a stately white mansion perched on a Sacramento River levee are in the zone where the state plans to build a massive intake facility for the tunnels that would ship water to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.

could look at it two Hemly told me, sitting in a chair overlooking the river. no point in getting worked up because logic will prevail. Or you could get really worked up because you know that logic prevail. It looks like the No doubt, ambition to build a water project that voters rejected 30 years ago will unleash new rounds of protest, litigation and possibly a repeat ballot battle. But much has changed since 1982.

Southern California has added nearly 10 million people and has grown steadily more reliant on delta water. Farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley have grown more powerful and confrontational, hoping to secure more delta water so they can grow more almonds for an expanding international market. If the outcome depended on their respective war chests, be no contest. Each year, delta farmers grow about $700 million in crops. By contrast, farmers in Fresno County alone home of the Westlands Water District grow about $6 billion worth.

Unlike farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, residents of the delta have the ear of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein or other major power brokers. Yet the Feinsteins of the world would be wise not to underestimate the delta resistance. Although the San Joaquin Valley is widely depicted as a home for corporate the delta has a few as well.

Corporations such as Greene Hemly have teamed with wealthy Stockton developers such as Fritz Grupe and Alex Spanos to develop an opposition group called Restore the Delta. Over the last five years, grown into an unlikely coalition that includes marina owners, fishing groups, tea partyers, the Sacramento-based rock band Cake and environmentalists such as Ed Begley Jr. Recently, Restore the Delta released avideo narrated by Begley that attempts to pick apart plans for the Supporters say the tunnels 35 miles long, with an estimated price tag of $14 billion will reduce environmental conflicts and help bring more reliable water deliveries to state and federal water contractors. The current system relies on gigantic pumps in the south delta that transfer water, have altered the natural flows in the delta, kill native fish and leave them vulnerable to predators. But opponents say the tunnels will simply move the south problem to the Sacramento River.

And they say the state and federal governments have failed to settle key scientific questions about how much water needs to flow through the delta. In its video, Troubled Restore the Delta conjures up iconic images of California water scandals Kesterson, Owens Valley. It takes issue with cost estimates for the tunnels and claims that earthquakes pose a serious threat to the current delta water system. It argues that any fix for the delta needs to improve water quality, which the tunnels do because remove fresh water from parts of the delta that depend on it. think it is wrong to sacrifice one region of the state so others can said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla of Stockton, campaign director for Restore the Delta.

Despite its name, Restore the Deltahas little enthusiasm for state and federal plans to restore tidal marshes and other wetlands in the delta. Rogene Reynolds, a real estate broker who lives on Roberts Island in the south delta, said she and her neighbors will fight plans to turn their island into a restoration site. want 10,000 acres of farmland to be habitat so they can mitigate for their water she said. is horrid. I cannot stomach As is to be expected, a group this diverse has trouble getting its messaging right, especially since the delta is so vast and its concerns about the vary widely.

In Sacramento County, the main concern is the location of the water intakes near Hood, the alignment of the tunnels and possible disruption to the farm economy. As now configured, the Brown administration plans to build three intakes, a huge forebay and two tunnels capable of carrying 9,000 cubic feet of water per second. In the central delta, where water rights are less secure than those in the north delta, the bigger concern is maintaining those rights. also a concern that the state will reduce funding to maintain delta levees which protect farmland and shunt water to the pumps farther south. In the south delta, landowners fear both habitat restoration and the impact the tunnels will have on their water quality.

For more than a half century, many of these farmers have benefited from construction of the state and federal pumps in the south delta. At most times of the year, those giant pumps draw water from the Sacramento River. Those unnatural flows are harmful to fish, but they provide certain south delta farmers with more fresh water than get with the south delta largely fed by the often low-flowing San Joaquin River. If the tunnels were built Reynolds and her neighbors fear their water quality will quickly degrade and become more saline. Now that state and federal officialshave announced plans to seek permits for the water project, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, negotiations will begin in earnest.

The big question: How will the state and feds such a vast construction project and change in delta plumbing? Jerry Meral, deputy secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, said the state will continue to pay attention to freshwater flows in the south delta if the tunnels are built. Even with a tunnel, the state and federal pumps will continue to draw from the south delta during certain periods, he said, to maintain fresh water for farms in the region. Meanwhile, he and other BDCP leaders are talking to city and county officials throughout the delta about possible state projects that benefit them over the long run. of the things they (Brown administration officials) are trying to do is cut separate deals with the five delta Barrigan-Parrilla said. the five counties are working so well together, they are trying to employ a divide-and-conquer The delta is in a tough spot.

Proponents of new water are much stronger in 2012 than they were 30 years ago. While possible that Restore the Delta could successfully block the tunnels through litigation or a ballot measure, have to overcome some big money in support of the project. If the delta counties lose, the tunnels could get built with little or no accommodation for communities that will absorb the greatest impacts. Hemly sure which way it will go. As the great-great-grandson of a Gold Rush pioneer who chose farming over mining, he and his family have more at stake than just the land they own and the fruit they grow.

lived behind levees, so we have a good sense of what the delta is all Hemly said. just want to be part of the Leavenworth is The Sacramento editorial page editor. Twitter: THE SACRAMENTO BEE DICK HAGERTY I DELTA FACTS 738,000: Size of delta in acres 1,100: Miles of levees 23,727: Acres of farmland in crops, 2010 $702 million: Delta crop value in 2009 $2.6 billion: Total economic impact of delta agriculture, including wineries, canneries, etc. 560,000: Delta population in 2010 360,000: Population in 1990 27 million: Californians receiving water from delta SOURCES: DELTA STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL, DELTA PROTECTION COMMISSION, PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA Trail on west side of Modesto going unfunded LEZLIE Mike Hall holds a sign July 15 in opposition to the proposal to build peripheral tunnels that could halt salmon runs, harm sustainable family farms and cost taxpayers. LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Drought shows folly of ethanol This year we are finding out whygrowing corn to make fuel is such a huge mistake.

Many farmers threw all their eggs into one basket to a record planting of 95.9 million acres of corn. All this for the ethanol craze with the notion we will save the planet by growing corn instead of drilling for oil. Nice theory, right? Ooooops, drought and record heat back east kill off this precious corn and now we are going to get stuck with record corn prices. By the time it gets to struggling farms in California, corn is costing $400 a ton; it used to be $140. Yet dairy milk prices stay the same.

Not to mention driving up the prices of food. Problem of growing so much corn is a ripple effect, with so much corn planted, other crops, cotton, soybeans, hay, canola as well as others are at a shortage, and record prices drive them as well. And before you environmental wackos want to hang me on the fence and throw corn cobs at me, the proof is out there in research. Growing corn to fuel our cars does not work or pencil out. JOHN BOS JR.

Modesto Nobody would have known In response to mind-set, justfacts used by grand (Aug. 7, Opinions): I have served on two grand juries in recent years. I agree with the president of the local grand association to a point. There are laws and standards established to guide the humans who make up the panel. Where I disagree is: mind-set, other than getting to the truth, does not exist in a grand If that were the case, there would be no need for a supermajority vote.

The votes would be unanimous, guided by the The press is, first and foremost, the watchdog. To me it appears that if Councilman Dave Lopez had not gone to the press, the grand jury would probably not have known about the Neighborhood Stabilization problem, nor would have the public known. THOMAS LAMBERT Modesto Keep the comedy flowing The Modesto Bee should headlineMark following quote at the top of its Letter's page: your own facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you What a country this is where our Constitution gives us the right of free speech and, in the process, the right to display our ignorance in all its pathetic glory in public. Thank you to The Modesto Bee for restraining a heavy editing hatchet and publishing the multiple rantings of the uninformed. I no longer bite my tongue when I read the material.

A hearty laugh is much healthier. another quote: have seen the enemy and he is Walt Kelly (Pogo). Please, please keep the comedy flowing. LAWRENCE MARTIN Hughson No manners, no time Have we gone talk with impunity in the library, movie theater, etc. They care less about following traffic laws or safety rules, regardless of whether it might save their lives or other A busy friend of mine said he take 20 minutes a week (at one time) to talk on the phone to make me feel better about our relationship.

Have we all gone mad? Maybe we need to just get quiet once in a while, look at our lives and smell the roses. DAVID SHIRK Modesto Use your garbage cans, people Why the city fine peoplefor using shopping carts and alleys for their garbage? What do they think garbage cans are for? SIBYL SEDAIN Modesto Ceres traffic light out of kilter Could someone with the City ofCeres please fix the traffic light at Mitchell and Don Pedro? The light for traffic on Mitchell remains red far too long, considering no traffic on Don Pedro. SCOTT CARLBERG Turlock LETTERS TO THE BEE Should be 200 words or less and limited to one topic per letter; May be edited and republished in any format, including on modbee.com; Become the property of The Modesto Bee; Must include name, address, phone number; Should be e-mailed to modbee.com; addressed to: Letters, The Bee, P.O. Box 5256, Modesto 95352; or faxed to 578-2207. E-mails are preferred.

Due to the volume of letters, writers are limited to one published letter for 30 days. OPINIONS Water wars returning to boil over The Modesto Bee www.modbee.com SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012.