Delta Protection Commission Chair Diane Burgis
STOCKTON, Calif. (Sept. 21, 2023) – The Delta Protection Advisory Committee (DPAC) will gain a tribal representative under action taken Thursday by the Delta Protection Commission.
“It’s about engagement, opportunity and giving the tribes a voice on DPAC,” said Delta Protection Commission Executive Director Bruce Blodgett.
Commission Chair Diane Burgis, who also serves on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, emphasized the importance of the perspective a tribal representative will bring.
“Native American tribes have thousands of years of deep memory of the Delta from before Europeans came,” she said. “Tribal voices should have a voice in how we manage our land and water. This is not us checking a box; Native knowledge will help us do a better job caring for the Delta.”
DPAC was created in 2009 by amendments to the 1992 Delta Protection Act. Whereas the Delta Protection Commission has majority representation from local government and water agencies, the Advisory Committee is composed of Delta stakeholders, including representatives in agriculture, recreation, natural resources, local communities and infrastructure.
Its role is to provide recommendations to the Commission regarding the Delta ecosystem, water supply, socioeconomic sustainability, recreation, tourism, agriculture, flood control, environment, water resources, infrastructure, Delta values and other Delta issues.
Tribal presence in the Delta
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is critically important to modern-day Californians – with its fertile farmland, water that helps meet the needs of 27 million people, diverse recreation and tourism opportunities, and history-drenched network of small farm communities.
But prior to Spanish, Mexican, and American settlement, the Delta watershed was inhabited, carefully tended, and revered by diverse peoples: Bay Miwok, Coast Miwok, Plains Miwok, Maidu, Nisenan, Ohlone, Patwin, Pomo, Wappo, Wintun, and Yokuts.
Despite great resistance, their land was occupied by new settlers, and their populations decimated by disease and genocidal campaigns. But the descendants of these original inhabitants, including sovereign tribes, are still among us, and still carrying out traditional practices in the region.
Representatives of four tribes made clear their desire to be consulted early and often on matters affecting the Delta during a Tribal Listening Session held in April by the Delta Stewardship Council, another state agency. (Read about the session here, or watch a recording – the listening session starts at 2:49:22 and runs nearly to the end of the recording.)
The representatives – who spoke for the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria of Miwok Indians, United Auburn Indian Community, and Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians – also emphasized their continuing wish to be guardians of the region, along with its other modern-day inhabitants and leaders.
DPAC’s new membership
In addition to getting a new tribal representative, DPAC will get another position representing the general public as a result of Thursday’s action – a unanimous vote – raising the total membership to 17.
With the expansion of the Committee approved, Commission staff will now develop an application process for the two new members, who will serve three-year terms.
DPAC is not the Commission’s only committee with tribal representation: Tribal representatives also serve on the Delta National Heritage Area Management Plan Advisory Committee, both as general and ex officio members. Their input has been crucial.
Additional resources:
WALNUT GROVE, Calif. (Sept. 15, 2023) – Six representatives of the Delta Protection Commission were leaders or featured speakers Thursday night at the Save the Delta Town Hall, sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA) Delta Chapter.
From left to right: Pat Hume, Mike Campbell, Douglas Hsia, Blake Roberts, Anna Swenson, Dan Whaley
Commission member and Sacramento County Supervisor Pat Hume was the cohost of the evening. Speakers included:
Around 90 people packed the auditorium of the Jean Harvie Community Center – an early 1900s schoolhouse – in Walnut Grove to hear presentations, raise concerns and ask questions of the speakers.
Class photos have an eternal charm, with their mix of children who are happy, grumpy, candid, posed, awkward, or indifferent (and inevitably at least one with wildly unkempt hair). This 1921 photo from Merritt School – now known as the 1883 Clarksburg Schoolhouse – is no different.
But there’s something about this photo that is not eternal, and actually surprising for its time: diversity. White and Asian children – probably mostly Japanese-American – are interspersed randomly, as you would expect to see in a school photo taken today, over 100 years later.
Ethnic diversity has been a hallmark of the Delta since the fertile farmland here was “reclaimed” from swamps, drawing settlers from China, Holland, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, and Portugal.
Racial harmony, however, was not a given. After arriving in the late 1800s, Japanese immigrants quickly met with success in farming[i], and then backlash. By 1913, the state had passed the Alien Land Law prohibiting Japanese and other Asian immigrants from owning land or leasing land for more than three years[ii]. And in 1921, state-sponsored segregation began, though schools in nearby communities were already segregated.[iii]
Not Clarksburg, though. “It was always integrated,” said Steve Hiromoto, a resident historian for Clarksburg’s Japanese community whose great, great grandfather arrived in Clarksburg from Japan in 1898.
There actually was a Japanese school in Clarksburg: Holland Union Gakuen. Built in 1925, Hiromoto said, it was not an alternative school for Japanese-American children, but rather an additional school that would help the children retain Japanese language and culture.
What was it about Clarksburg that fostered integration even as there was segregation in nearby communities? Hiromoto speculates that it may be the nature of the community, with all members focused on farming.
“My family assimilated with the community because it was a farm-based community, and they were involved in a lot of activities the other farm families were involved in,” he said. “They felt welcome and able to contribute where they could.”
In other communities, there were distinct Japantown districts where immigrants might be more likely to live and socialize mostly with fellow Japanese immigrants. “Clarksburg didn’t have a situation like that,” Hiromoto said.
Clarksburg public schools remained integrated for two more decades after this photo was taken, and it was not a community decision that ended it – it was the President of the United States. The U.S. had entered World War II, and fear and distrust of the Japanese was running high, so on February 19, 1942, the president issued Executive Order 9066, ordering 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry into relocation camps. All of Clarksburg’s Japanese-American families had to leave.
Many didn’t return, but the Japanese presence in the Delta remains. Of 100 Japanese-American families that left the Clarksburg region, about 25 came back, and 10 of those remain in this small farming community to this day. Walnut Grove has an operating Buddhist temple. And Isleton’s and Walnut Grove’s Japantowns are on the National Register of Historic Places. All are living facets of history in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area.
The school pictured in the photo above is being restored by a community group called the Friends of the 1883 Clarksburg Schoolhouse, with support from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy (grants for restoration and property acquisition), the Delta Protection Commission (feasibility study and interpretive guidance) and many individual donors in the community. Learn more at www.1883clarksburgschoolhouse.org.
[i] Jennifer Helzer, California State University, Stanislaus, “Building Communities – Economics & Ethnicity”
[ii] Philip Garone, California State University, Stanislaus, “Managing the Gardin: Agriculture, Reclamation, and Restoration in the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta”
[iii] Jennifer Helzer, California State University, Stanislaus, “Building Communities – Economics & Ethnicity”
RIO VISTA, Calif. (July 21, 2023) – The Delta Protection Commission re-appointed five incumbents Thursday to the Delta Protection Advisory Commission (DPAC).
The reappointed members and the institutions they represent are:
- Todd Bruce – recreation – Delta recreationist
- Mariah Looney – organization – Restore the Delta
- Gary Mello – agriculture – J&L Mello Farm Equipment, RD 563 (Tyler Island)
- Edward Hard – state agency – California Department of Parks and Recreation Division of Boating and Waterways
- Sam Garcia – utility/infrastructure – Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Committee members serve three-year terms. The Committee meets every other month, and its next meeting is on Aug. 1.
DPAC provides recommendations to the Delta Protection Commission on diverse interests within the Delta, including the Delta’s ecosystem, water supply, socioeconomic sustainability, recreation, agriculture, flood control, environment, water resources, utility infrastructure, and other Delta issues.
The Committee was created by the Delta Protection Act, Public Resources Code Section 29753(a). This is its Charter (PDF).
Further information: Information Officer Holly Heyser, 916-531-9496
This Delta Protection Commission newsletter was sent on 07/11/2023 at 08:15 AM PDT. Click here to subscribe to this bi-monthly newsletter.
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Delta Heritage Courier
July/August 2023
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A Piece of Military and Civil Rights History: The Port Chicago Disaster
It was late at night on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, a munitions facility developed on Suisun Bay to support the war effort. Workers, mostly Black sailors who’d been given little training, were loading two merchant ships with 4,600 tons of explosives.
There were hundreds of workers on or near the pier when at 10:18 p.m., a series of violent explosions rocked the facility, killing 320 people. The ships were destroyed. Every building at Port Chicago was damaged. The blasts were felt as far away as Nevada. Smoke rose two miles into the air. It was, at the time, the largest known man-made explosion.
But it wasn’t just the explosion that made waves in history. Three weeks later, Black survivors of the disaster were ordered to Mare Island in Vallejo to continue loading munitions without being given training, and 258 of them refused. A modern examination concluded they were justified in disobeying, but 50 were convicted of mutiny and imprisoned.
The controversy over the case ultimately contributed to Harry Truman’s order to desegregate the military in 1948, but most of the men who were convicted would not live to see justice.
Sources/additional reading:
Visit the memorial: The Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial accepts visitors via reservations that must be made two weeks in advance. Visiting is allowed on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays. Click here for more information about visiting.
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National Heritage Area News
NHA Signs Going Up in the Delta
Three of 11 planned signs welcoming motorists to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage have been installed – welcome recognition of the region’s importance.
“It just acknowledges what we’ve known, that the Delta is special place and it deserves recognition,” said Mario Moreno, chair of the Hood Community Council. “It’s beautiful, and it should be treasured and taken care of.”
Read about the signs in this article, which also includes an interactive map of all current and planned sign locations.
NHA Goals Set
The committee developing the management plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area approved goals for the NHA in June.
“We are excited to make progress on the NHA management plan, but the real significance of this step is that the goals describe our vision of the future of the Delta,” said Blake Roberts, the Delta Protection Commission program manager overseeing development of the National Heritage Area.
You can read more about the five goals set by the committee here.
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Upcoming Meetings – CANCELED
Update: The July 13 Delta NHA Advisory Committee has been canceled. The notice for the August 3 meeting will be posted on the same page no later than July 24.
Exhibits, Events, and Classes
“Chinese in Agriculture: Levees, Asparagus and Bayside Cannery” is one of the lectures offered this fall at Los Medanos College.
Events
Lodi Vines Celebration – TODAY
The San Joaquin County Historical Museum presents “Lodi Vines: Past, Present, & Future,” a celebration of Lodi’s wine and grape industry, at 5:30 p.m. today (July 11) at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum. (SOLD OUT)
Clarksburg Schoolhouse Birthday Party – July 16
This year marks a milestone in the history of the Clarksburg Schoolhouse: its 140th birthday. The Clarksburg Schoolhouse 140th Birthday Party includes appetizers, wines, silent auction and live music from 3 to 6 p.m.
Dutra Museum Foundation Golf Tournament – August 21
The 7th annual golf tournament benefiting the Dutra Museum Foundation will be held on August 21. Follow the Dutra Museum Foundation for more details. (SOLD OUT)
Vallejo Museum Gala – Sept. 9
The Vallejo Museum’s annual gala celebrates Vallejo music through the decades. Event, which runs from 5 to 9 p.m., includes full dinner, cocktail bar, DJ music and performance by Vallejo musicians. Buy tickets here.
Training and Classes
California Office of Historic Preservation, Section 106 Training
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and California Office of Historic Preservation are holding two, in-person training courses on compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. On July 12, there will be a day-long training on the Section 106 essentials. On July 13, there will be an additional course on how to build agreement and documents for Section 106 consultation. Find out more on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s website.
Los Medanos College Lifelong Learning Lectures – September through December
The Los Medanos College’s Lifelong Learning Center has posted its fall lecture series, which includes several lectures by Carol Jensen, local historian and Delta NHA Advisory Committee member.
Lecture offerings include:
- “Chinese in Agriculture: Levees, Asparagus and Bayside Cannery” (9/19)
- “Death at the Healing Waters” – about the Byron Hot Springs Resort’s history (9/28)
- “Traditional Lifeways of Indigenous Peoples in East Contra Costa and the Delta” (10/10)
- “Water Wars: Water History of California to the Delta Tunnels” (12/19).
Lectures are held in Brentwood, Pittsburg, and Oakland. Enrollment at Los Medanos is not required, but you must register in advance (classes fill quickly) at the Los Medanos College website.
Museum Exhibits
East Contra Costa Historical Museum Open – Ongoing through October
The East Contra Costa Historical Society Museum opened for the season on April 1. The Museum will remain open on Saturdays and the third Sunday of each month through October. Learn more about the East Contra Costa Historical Museum.
Uprooted: an American Story, Bridging the Past and the Present – Ongoing
The California Museum’s revised signature exhibit remains open. This fully rebuilt, technology-enhanced exhibit focuses on the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and explores how they responded to their forced removal and incarceration. It also highlights Japanese Americans’ ongoing efforts to ensure no other groups experience similar civil rights violations. Learn more on the California Museum website.
Grant Opportunities
National Park Service, Underrepresented Communities Grant Program
This program supports the survey, inventory, and designation of historic properties that are associated with communities currently underrepresented in the National Register of Historic Places and among National Historic Landmarks. Applications are due by July 18.For more information and to apply, visit the National Park Service website.
Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, CDBG Program
The Housing and Redevelopment Agency is soliciting proposals for eligible public facility improvement activities under the Community Development Block Grant Program.
The maximum award is $100,000. Non-profits are eligible. Projects must be located in the city of Sacramento and serve a CDBG-eligible low-income population.
Request for Proposals will be available after 4 p.m. July 17 on OpenGov Bids – a link that will not work until availability begins.
There will be a pre-proposal meeting Aug. 2 at 9 a.m. via zoom; register in advance for the meeting here. Proposals are due no later than 2 p.m. Sept. 15, 2023.
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Please contact us with updates or if you want to follow up on newsletter items by emailing Blake Roberts at blake.roberts@delta.ca.gov.
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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (June 19, 2023) – Rich farmland on the left, the Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel and Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area on the right. These iconic Delta scenes form the backdrop for one of the first three signs welcoming motorists to the Delta and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area.
This was one of the first three signs installed in the Delta welcoming motorists to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area. (PHOTO: Delta Protection Commission)
Two signs were installed last week by the California Conservation Corps: one on southbound Jefferson Boulevard just outside of West Sacramento, where the road rises to the Ship Channel levee; the other on Interstate 80 at the eastbound East Chiles Road onramp to the Yolo Causeway. One was installed in late April on Hood Franklin Road just west of the southbound offramp from Interstate 5.
Eight more signs are planned in locations throughout the Delta along I-5, I-580, Highway 12 and Highway 4.
The signs are a highly visible part of the Commission’s efforts to educate the public about the Delta’s value as an agricultural, natural, historic, recreational and cultural resource. And they have been warmly received in Delta communities that welcome recognition of the Delta’s importance.
“It just acknowledges what we’ve known, that the Delta is special place and it deserves recognition,” said Mario Moreno, chair of the Hood Community Council. “It’s beautiful, and it should be treasured and taken care of.”
Hood Community Council Chair Mario Moreno in front of a new sign welcoming motorists to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area (PHOTO: ©Mario Moreno 2023 – used with permission)
The sign installation also marks growing recognition of the Delta National Heritage Area, which Congress designated as California’s first – and so far only – NHA in 2019. The Delta Protection Commission is the local entity coordinating the NHA’s development; it is currently working on a management plan that is due to the Secretary of the Interior next March.
In addition to the welcome sign program, the Commission is working to develop both wayfinding and interpretive signs (PDF) to be placed throughout the Delta, using a grant from Caltrans’s Clean California program.
There has been a longstanding need for signage in the Delta, identified in the Commission’s 2012 Economic Sustainability Plan, which found the Delta economy generally, and recreation and tourism specifically, suffer from a lack of branding and marketing.
The welcome signs are a true joint effort, led by the Delta Protection Commission but conceived and carried out in partnership with the Delta Stewardship Council; the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy; the California Conservation Corps; Caltrans districts 3, 4 and 10; and California Prison Industry, which made the signs.
For further information: Contact Information Officer Holly Heyser at holly.heyser@delta.ca.gov.
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (June 9, 2023) – A key committee adopted five goals last week for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area.
“We are excited to make progress on the NHA management plan, but the real significance of this step is that the goals describe our vision of the future of the Delta,” said Blake Roberts, the Delta Protection Commission program manager overseeing development of the National Heritage Area.
The Delta National Heritage Area is the first – and so far only – NHA in California, a distinction that underscores the region’s historical and cultural value in a state better known nationally for its coastal cities and resources. National Heritage Areas are designated by Congress as places where natural, cultural, historic, and recreation resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape.
Congress created the Delta NHA in 2019 and designated the state Delta Protection Commission as the NHA’s local coordinating entity. It is responsible for developing a management plan, coordinating projects and programs and providing funding and support to other entities implementing heritage programs.
So far, the NHA’s Management Plan Advisory Committee has completed the mission statement, vision statement and goals for the NHA.
Its next steps are to develop the objectives and strategies for two sections of the plan: resource stewardship, and heritage development and tourism. It also will be reviewing draft sections of the plan, including the interpretive plan and resource inventory.
The goals approved on June 1 by the Commission’s National Heritage Area Management Plan Advisory Committee are:
Goal 1: Guided by interpretation, and through institutional leadership and community projects, promote and instill an evolving understanding and appreciation of the historical and ongoing changes in the Delta’s land, water, wildlife, and communities.
Goal 2: Steward the heritage and culture of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, by identifying, preserving, conserving, and enhancing the unique identity, resources, and living traditions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Goal 3: Support sustainable tourism and economic development by encouraging responsible use of, and visitation to, the Delta’s unique resources and communities.
Goal 4: Connect and support collaboration among governmental and non-governmental partners, businesses, and residents to establish a brand that readily identifies the Delta NHA and increases public awareness.
Goal 5: Seek, establish, and maintain collaborative partnerships, effective governance principles, and sustainable business practices to manage the coordinating entity and the NHA.
This Delta Protection Commission occasional newsletter was sent at 06/01/2023 07:01 AM PDT
The Delta Protection Commission (Commission) has found that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Delta Conveyance Project (Delta tunnel) does not adequately describe the tunnel’s effects on the cultural and historic resources in its path. In comments sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) on March 15, the Commission recommends that the Corps adopt the “No Action” Alternative rather than approving permits for the Delta tunnel because of the project’s significant and unmitigated damage to cultural and historic resources.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is the project proponent for the Delta tunnel. The Corps is a federal regulator with responsibility for deciding whether to authorize the project. The Corps developed the DEIS under the National Environmental Policy Act to evaluate the Delta tunnel’s environmental impacts.
Commission Comments on Impacts to Historic Resources
The DEIS describes historic and cultural resources damaged by the Delta tunnel. The Commission has found that this description fails to recognize the Delta’s status as a cultural landscape valued by California Native American tribes, Delta residents, and visitors. The DEIS focuses on built environment resources, such as historic buildings, and archaeological sites rather than the larger cultural landscape surrounding them. For example, many of Locke’s Chinese residents worked the orchards and farms surrounding the town. Damage to these orchards and farms would impair Locke’s integrity as a National Historic Landmark.
The DEIS also identifies built resources that the tunnel would damage. This list omits important properties including parts of Hood, the Victory Highway (State Route 160), historic riverside orchards, and Roberts Island.
In addition, the DEIS’s assessment of factors that would damage the setting for historic properties is inadequate. The DEIS fails to take in account noise impacts; visual impacts through introduction of project facilities; and removal of structures, vegetation, or other contextual features. However, the DEIS acknowledges that the proposed measures to mitigate these impacts would not prevent significant adverse effects.
Historic photo of a tractor on Roberts Island. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
The shortcomings in the DEIS may be more of the responsibility of the DWR than the Corps. The Corps relied on DWR’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for its assessment of impacts to historic and cultural resources. The Commission’s comment letter on the DEIS points out that in preparation of the DEIR, DWR failed to adequately consult with local experts, including local historical societies and other authorities, contrary to established historic preservation guidelines. It is apparent in the DEIR that DWR limited the scope of its consultants’ work, resulting in research that ignored the setting of cultural resources in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties where the tunnel’s worst effects would occur.
The Corps is now considering and preparing responses to comments on the DEIS from the Commission and others. The Final EIS is anticipated to be published in 2024.
You can review the Commission’s full comments on both the DEIS and the DEIR on the Commission’s website.
View of the Delta Telephone and Telegraph Company building and neighboring house in Courtland, Sacramento County. Courtesy of the California State Library E. F. Mueller Postcard Collection.
Survey of Cultural Resources Affected by the Delta Tunnel
To ensure that the Commission’s efforts to protect the Delta’s historic resources from damage by the tunnel are based on the best available information, we have drafted a survey of cultural and historic properties that the tunnel could affect. The survey was completed in March 2023. You can read the survey on the Commission website (PDF).
The survey identifies over 60 historic resources in the Delta, with a focus on resources in areas affected by the tunnel. The survey’s outline and approach were informed by the themes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area Feasibility Study (PDF). Research for the survey also drew on information from the Commission’s Delta Narratives report (PDF) and was supplemented by additional staff research and reviews by historians, landscape architects, Delta community organizations and residents, and staff at the affected counties.
The survey proposes that areas in the Delta affected by the Delta tunnel are part of a “significant cultural landscape” that meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for Treatment of Cultural Landscapes and its Guidelines for Treatment of Rural Historic Landscapes and should be protected. The landscape at stake is primarily agricultural, which in the Delta developed early with features that now define much of the landscape’s character.
The survey describes types of features that the tunnel may affect such as landscapes, communities, people, and structures. These include small riverside communities, such as Hood, adjoining farms and riverbanks along the Sacramento River and State Route 160, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) launch shaft sites and tunnel muck storage sites on Twin Cities Road and Roberts Island, and the TBM retrieval shaft sites in San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties.
The California Environmental Quality Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and National Historic Preservation Act all require consideration of impacts to cultural resources, including historic properties. Project alternatives that could avoid adverse impacts must be identified and feasible measures to mitigate damage must be proposed.
The Commission’s comments on the Delta tunnel DEIR and DEIS drew on information in the survey to identify historic buildings and districts that the project would damage and potential ways to avoid or reduce impacts. These include both sites listed on the state or national registers of historic places, as well as sites that Commission staff believe meet state and federal criteria for listing. The draft survey has also been provided to Corps staff involved in Section 106 consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act in response to its request for information about historic resources.
Celery fields in the Delta. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
What’s Next
While DWR and the Corps prepare responses to public and agency comments on the DEIR and DEIS, the Commission, affected Delta counties, and the United Auburn Indian Community, one of the affected tribes, are continuing to meet with the Corps as part of consultation about protecting cultural and historic resources under the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106. For more information on the consultation process, see Volume 1 of the Section 106 newsletters.
The Corps has prepared two drafts of a Section 106 programmatic agreement. These drafts have been circulated among the consulting parties, DWR, and the State Historic Preservation Office. The agreement, a first step in compliance with Section 106, lays out key steps in applying Section 106 to the Delta tunnel, a general timeline for compliance, and the roles of the responsible agencies, including opportunities for public participation. The United Auburn Indian Community, Commission staff, and Delta counties have responded with comments that ask the Corps to:
- Recognize the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area and evaluate the Delta as a historically significant cultural landscape.
- Avoid arbitrary limits on the area evaluated for potential adverse effects on cultural resources. Instead evaluate impacts from the full range of tunnel effects including noise, visual impacts, traffic congestion, and potential building abandonment.
- More thoroughly describe opportunities for Delta residents to review and comment on information about historical properties affected by the project including historic property surveys, findings of effect, and historic property treatment plans. Share all but confidential reports prepared about cultural resources and their protection with other parties to the agreement, including the Commission, counties, and tribes.
Steel bridge in San Joaquin County. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
Get Involved
The involvement of people who care about the Delta’s cultural and historic resources is key to protecting these assets. One way to get involved is sharing this newsletter with Delta historians, community groups, and others who are knowledgeable about Delta history and care about our region’s future. They can add themselves to the newsletter’s distribution list by signing up online.
For More Information
Volume #1 Protecting the Delta from DWR’s Proposed Tunnel with the National Historic Preservation Act
Volume #2 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Proposes Agreement on Program for Protecting Historic Properties
Volume #3 DWR Delta Conveyance EIR Provides First Opportunity to Protect Historic Properties
Volume #4 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement Offers Next Opportunity to Protect Cultural and Historic Resources from Proposed Delta Tunnel
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (May 11, 2023) – The Delta Leadership Program – a joint program of the Delta Protection Commission and the Delta Regional Foundation – has received the 2023 Government Innovation Award from the American Society of Public Administration’s Sacramento Chapter.
The Government Innovation Award is presented to an individual or organization that implemented a new program, policy, or solution that made a significant improvement in public service delivery or performance. Here is a list of all eight winners this year.
The Delta Leadership Program was created to build and support sustained leadership development within the Delta community. It consists of a five-day intensive curriculum completed over the course of four months (one business day every three to four weeks), with an additional day-long Delta water tour. Each workshop is integrated with half of the day spent on regional issues such as water and agriculture, public safety and economic development; and the other half spent on skill development such as negotiation, team building, innovation, values and organizational momentum.
The Leadership Program “was selected for the award based on the innovative way it meets a regional need and is configured to cross pollinate across all of the communities of the Delta as well as all of its sectors,” according to the Awards Committee. “The focus of the program is also innovative. It is designed to build leaders through shared learning that expands the region’s social networks and instills the values of the Delta as an evolving place.”
Program Facilitator Lisa Beutler, senior principal with Stantec, said, “The awards committee also appreciated the fact that the program evolved from a visioning process and that a state agency was willing to assume a completely new role to achieve its mission.”
Graham Knaus, CEO of the California State Association of Counties, congratulated the Commission. “The ASPA awards are a significant local honor, and we were pleased to see the state-local Delta Protection Commission’s Delta Leadership Program honored,” he said. “We are keenly interested in successful state-local partnerships and innovative strategies to engage our communities on issues of critical importance. The Delta Leadership Program is a prime example of both, and we hope to share its success with counties across the state and nation.”
The goals of the Delta Leadership Program are:
- Identify and promote regional leaders in the Delta community.
- Develop skills and awareness to increase the pool of effective Delta leaders.
- Expand leaders’ knowledge regarding the key issues, opportunities and challenges that face the Delta region.
- Identify emerging leaders and deliver skills and tools to enhance their contributions to the Delta community.
- Build relationships of trust and cooperation between businesses, government, non-profit, civic, religious and cultural groups.
- Foster a shared sense of community throughout the Delta region.
To learn more about ASPA awards, please click here.
Outgoing Delta Protection Commission Chair Don Nottoli and incoming Chair Diane Burgis
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Nov. 18, 2022) – Commission Chair and Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli attended his last meeting as a member of the Commission on Thursday.
Nottoli has served on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and Commission since 1994. After a long and distinguished career, he decided not to seek reelection this year.
Nottoli has been instrumental in protecting the Delta as a unique place and advocating on behalf of the Delta’s communities. His last Commission meeting ended with a standing ovation in his honor, as well as a round of comments from his fellow Commission members highlighting the legacy he leaves behind.
Please join us as we thank Nottoli for his service to the Delta and welcome our incoming Chair: Contra Costa County Supervisor Diane Burgis.
