Save reservoir room for snowmelt

Re: “Tiny fish hindering water capture” (Page A1, Jan. 14):

Your article on water capture ignores a very obvious reason for not filling the reservoirs at this point, and it has nothing to do with tiny fish. It’s called the snowpack.

If we fill our reservoirs now, and we get a warm atmospheric river in March, and the snowpack melts, then we have no capacity to hold that water back. Look back to the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville. With the volume of the current snowpack it would flood Sacramento, Stockton and the Delta region.

It’s easy to blame a little fish for our water deficit, but what about the expanding planting of almonds and vineyards at the same time we are expanding housing and population in arid regions of the state? Instead, we should be looking to capture water runoff in urban environments. There are 40 million people in the state, but let’s blame a fish.

— Peter Calimeris Pleasant Hill

Difference between Trump, Biden is obstruction

The big difference between Donald Trump’s documents and Joe Biden’s is the difference between cooperation and obstruction.

If Trump had turned over the documents when asked, several times, Mar-a-Lago would never have been searched.

— Frank Grygus, San Ramon

A’s development will add only empty offices

Re: “Vacancies on offices, rents rise at year end” (Page B1, Jan. 16):

The East Bay Times reports the office vacancy rate for Oakland, including Jack London Square, is 25%. One wonders how many vacant offices the A’s ownership development project will add to Oakland.

Please, do not approve this plan.

— Mike Tracy, Oakland

State should not import non-native animals

California annually imports some 2 million American bullfrogs (commercially raised) and 300,000 freshwater turtles (taken from the wild) for human consumption, non-natives all. All are diseased and/or parasitized, though it is illegal to sell such products. Released into local waters, the non-natives prey upon and displace our native species.

The market animals are kept in horrendous conditions, often butchered while fully conscious. Worse, the majority of the bullfrogs carry the dreaded chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has caused the extinctions of 100-plus amphibian species worldwide in recent years.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife should cease issuing import permits. The powers-that-be seem more concerned about politics as usual, profits and cultural/racial matters than the real issues here — environmental protection, public health, unacceptable animal cruelty and law enforcement.

The deadline for the introduction of new bills is Jan. 20. Let your representatives hear from you.

— Eric Mills, Oakland

Sites Reservoir could guard against floods

California needs to build the Sites Reservoir to store floodwaters from the Sacramento River. It is needed both for water storage and protection from the types of catastrophic floods that inundated California in 1861 and 1605. The 1861 megaflood was caused by a 45-day atmospheric river.

The Sites off-stream reservoir is the most cost-effective way to protect against storms. It would store 1.8 million acre-feet of water for 5 million homes and agricultural water needs. Govs. Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown strongly support the Sites project. While it costs $3.9 billion, it is less expensive per acre-foot than other proposals. Federal funds would be available from recently passed infrastructure bills to reduce the cost. Compared to spending $100 billon on high-speed rail, it’s a no-brainer to build the Sites Reservoir.

— Ed Kahl, Woodside

Runoff is critical to healthy waterways

Since the rains began we have heard and seen on TV water from rivers rushing into the ocean. And every time the refrain is, “water wasted.”

But this is not the case.

Free and swift-flowing water is necessary for the health of our rivers and their wildlife. Even more important this rush of fresh water into the ocean is needed to protect the long-neglected health of the ocean.

We simply think of water from the homocentric “me” position. This clouds our judgment and how we manage this life source. Salmon habitat is affected, reservoirs fill with silt, rivers don’t get revitalized, silt does not get evenly distributed to replenish riparian habitats.

This rush of fresh water maintains the balance of the ocean’s salinity. It brings fresh nutrients into the ocean so that ocean plants and fauna can thrive and self-sustain.

— John Francis, San Jose

GOP should take chance to expel George Santos

The George Santos story seems to get worse by the day. Not only did he lie about his credentials but he also may have violated campaign finance rules. He has the nerve to admit to these exaggerations but says he “did nothing unethical.”

The Republicans should throw the bum out. They would gain stature by stepping up quickly and decisively.

— Neil Bonke, Los Altos