Delta can’t be saved?

The deputy director of California’s Natural Resources Agency has come under fire for allegedly saying the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan will not save the Delta.

Five members of Congress have called for Jerry Meral to resign after two environmental advocates—Tom Stokely and Restore the Delta’s Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla—claim Meral suggested in casual conversation at an April 15 event that the proposed plan is not about saving the Delta and the estuary cannot be saved, according to The Record in Stockton.

Barrigan-Parrilla said she was standing nearby when Meral made the comments and wrote them down. However, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration maintains the comments were taken out of context during a discussion about threats from sea-level rise, earthquakes and levee failures.

Barrigan-Parrilla insists the project’s primary objective is increasing the amount of water shipped to farms and cities south of the Delta.