Additional groups file requests for an extension
Several groups have sent letters in response to the Department of Water Resources letter to the State Water Board opposing the multiple requests for an extension of time after DWR and Reclamation submitted their documents to the State Water Board in preparation for the upcoming hearing.
(In other words, it’s the response to the response to the request for an extension.)
The letter from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) et al notes that the State Water Board granted repeated requests by DWR and Reclamation for extensions totalling 90 days, but DWR and Reclamation oppose the single request for additional time. They also dispute DWR’s claim that much of the submitted documents are not ‘new’ information and that modeling information requested was provided.
“Petitioners’ massive data dump and obfuscation of the models, assumptions and output differences they have employed sabotages protestants’ preparation of their evidentiary objections by the June 15 deadline. Accordingly, protestants’ requested 60-day extension should be granted,” they write.
Adding to that, the CSPA, Planning and Conservation League, Restore the Delta, and others also object, saying: “Petitioners claim they would be prejudiced by having only two weeks to read and understand a comparatively few pages of possible objections to their evidence, but that it is fine to require protestants to read, understand, and prepare objections to over 5000 pages of exhibits and testimony, and 19.3 GB of modeling data in two weeks.”
“Denial of a reasonable time to review the voluminous case-in-chief for possible objections would in effect deny the right to object to petitioners’ evidence and would be a denial of due process,” they write.
More extension requests
Adding to the chorus of requests for an extension are Islands, Inc.; Local Agencies of the North Delta, and the South Delta Water Agency and Central Delta Water Agency.
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