[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 18, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2795-E2797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO THOMAS J. GRAFF

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 18, 2009

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay 
tribute to one of the great icons of modern environmentalism, Thomas J. 
Graff, who passed away last week at the age of 65.
  Tom Graff founded Environmental Defense Fund's California office in 
1971, and over the ensuing decades, he built a record of accomplishment 
that includes landmark reforms to the way we use water and energy.
  It was my great honor and pleasure to have worked with Tom for many 
years, and my staff and I often relied on his counsel and insights. His 
ability to think strategically about policy and politics was unmatched, 
and there are very few facets of California environmental policy over 
the last four decades that did not feel Tom's influence.
  Tom Graff's negotiating prowess and his wisdom were critical to the 
passage of legislation that I authored in 1992 to protect the Bay-Delta 
of California: the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. And his work 
on California energy policy since the 1970's helped lead to the state's 
pioneering global warming bill, AB 32, signed into law in 2006.
  Over his remarkable career, Tom Graff did an enormous amount of good 
for his fellow Californians--and for the planet and all its 
inhabitants. But Tom's unique legacy may be the partnerships and 
friendships that he formed on the way to his many accomplishments. Tom 
was always able to find a way to work together with those on the other 
side of the table, and even though his communications skills were 
incomparable, he knew that long-term solutions were always more 
important than soundbites.
  In closing, I want to express my deep condolences to Tom's loving 
family, to his colleagues at EDF, and all of those who knew and worked 
with him--his passing leaves an incredible void. We will miss his 
insights, his creativity, his unmatched ability to find solutions, and 
most of all, his warmth and good humor.
  I am submitting for the record several articles remembering Tom's 
life, and I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the life and 
legacy of a great friend and environmental champion, Thomas J. Graff.

                [From the Sacramento Bee, Nov. 15, 2009]

             A Water Warrior Who Won Respect From All Sides

                        (By Stuart Leavenworth)

       A lion of California's environmental movement died 
     Thursday. Tom Graff, who helped lead the 1980s fight against 
     the peripheral canal and blocked the East Bay from diverting 
     water from the American River, finally succumbed to the 
     cancer that snuck up on him two years ago.
       I feel fortunate to have known Graff for as long as I did. 
     When I returned to California a decade ago, Graff was one of 
     many people who helped school me on my home state and its 
     Byzantine water politics.
       Graff, a Harvard-educated lawyer with a degree from the 
     London School of Economics, was not a native Californian. (He 
     was born in Honduras, the son of Jewish parents who had fled 
     Nazi Germany). But he knew more about my home state than 
     almost anyone you could imagine.
       I soon learned that Graff was a hero for Sacramento 
     residents who care about the American River. In 1971, he 
     founded the California office of the Environmental Defense 
     Fund in an attic in Berkeley. When the East Bay Municipal 
     Utility District attempted to tap water from the American 
     River, Graff was asked by local residents to file a lawsuit. 
     After 17 years, they eventually triumphed, prompting EBMUD to 
     reach a 2001 settlement with Sacramento County on a joint 
     water-withdrawal project further downstream, on the 
     Sacramento River. He also

[[Page E2796]]

     helped pass California's climate legislation, AB 32, and 
     spark a campaign to restore Hetch Hetchy, the valley in 
     Yosemite National Park that is submerged by San Francisco's 
     water supply.
       Graff will be known for battles he won and lost, but he 
     never was just a ``stopper.'' Throughout his career, he 
     advised his peers to go beyond mere obstruction. He wanted 
     the environmental movement to understand the circumstances 
     that led to projects they might oppose, and offer reasonable 
     solutions.
       His lifelong crusade was for rational (i.e. market-based) 
     uses of water. By trading water, he argued, water districts 
     could collectively cope with shortages without building new 
     dams. While this idea was anathema to many environmentalists 
     (those who see markets as evil), it sparked a needed debate 
     in California on the essential value of water and the waste 
     that can occur when it is priced cheaply.
       I spent a day with Graff last April at his home in the East 
     Bay, after it was clear his cancer couldn't be cured. His 
     voice was barely audible, yet he still exuded the good spirit 
     and humor that drew people to him throughout his career.
       Graff and I spent most of the afternoon talking about 
     California politics, the general dysfunction at the Capitol 
     and new plans for a canal to divert water around the 
     Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
       We had lunch at Zackary's Pizza in Oakland, where he 
     impressed me with his appetite. Graff helped kill the 
     peripheral canal project at the ballot box in 1982, going 
     head-to-head with some of his fellow environmentalists and 
     then-Gov. Jerry Brown. At the time, Graff wasn't convinced 
     that the canal would be operated properly, with adequate 
     safeguards for the Delta and its upstream tributaries.
       When I talked to him in April, Graff seemed to have turned 
     a page on that old fight. ``We'd be willing to go there, to a 
     canal outcome,'' he told me. ``But we would want to know as 
     much of the terms as possible.''
       In particular, Graff said, he'd want to know key details of 
     how water would be conveyed in such a facility, in wet 
     periods and dry ones. There would have to be long-term 
     assurances built into the project's operations so that a 
     change in the governor's office didn't spell doom for the 
     Delta and upstream water users.
       We exchanged e-mails and phone calls, but I didn't get a 
     chance to spend time with Graff after that long afternoon. So 
     I have no idea where he stood on the legislative water 
     package the governor finished signing the day that he died.
       My guess is that Graff, with his expertise in economics, 
     would be distraught the state is seeking to borrow $11.1 
     billion from taxpayers for various water projects, including 
     new dams. As he told me in April, such projects should be 
     largely paid ``by water users, instead of taxpayers.''
       On the other hand, I know that Graff would be proud of a 
     little-noticed part of policy package--one that requires the 
     state to assess the needs of the Delta as a public trust 
     resource.
       Graff had sought this assessment for years, especially as 
     various fish species of the Delta went into deep decline. The 
     new law means that, before any new studies are launched on a 
     canal or other alternatives, the state must evaluate how much 
     water the Delta ecosystem needs in various years and in 
     various climate scenarios.
       Those needs, for the first time, will then become part of 
     an overall management system for the Delta, its ecosystem and 
     its various communities.
       As for the canal itself, Graff would likely want to reserve 
     judgment on the project until he could closely examine its 
     details. How would it be designed, operated and financed?
       He'd pay close attention to the new Delta Stewardship 
     Council that the new law creates. Appointees to this council 
     could determine if the public trust needs of the Delta are 
     married with the operational details of a canal, or some 
     other form of conveyance to move Delta water to the south.
       While Graff's views on the water package are intriguing to 
     speculate about, his views on life are more important.
       In his final years and months, at age 65, Graff displayed 
     more courage than anyone I've known with a terminal disease. 
     He was never bitter, and always encouraging. He stayed in 
     touch with friends, devoted himself to his family and managed 
     to keep track of his life's work.
       You'll probably hear more in the weeks ahead about Graff's 
     legacy--both from old friends and adversaries. He died having 
     the respect of both.
       In the world of California water, that's an achievement in 
     itself.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2009]

                   Groundbreaker in U.S. Water Policy

                          (By Juliet Eilperin)

       Thomas J. Graff, 65, who helped transform the nation's 
     water policy as the longtime regional office director in 
     California for the Environmental Defense Fund, died Nov. 12 
     at a hospital in Oakland after battling thyroid cancer for 
     more than two years.
       Mr. Graff founded the advocacy group's California office in 
     1971 in the attic of a University of California at Berkeley 
     fraternity house. He changed the way federal and state 
     governments managed water in the West by providing market 
     incentives for farmers and other water rights holders to 
     conserve resources and direct them toward urban areas and 
     environmental purposes for a profit.
       Marcia Aronoff, the Environmental Defense Fund's senior 
     vice president for programs, said Mr. Graff was responsible 
     ``for putting together the first major change in water law 
     and federal policy in modern times.''
       The idea of upending the principle of ``use it or lose it'' 
     when it came to water rights was radical when Mr. Graff 
     suggested it in the 1980s, but he persuaded lawmakers in 
     Washington and Sacramento to let farmers save water and then 
     sell it to supply urban consumers and critical ecosystems.
       Mr. Graff helped codify these incentives through the 1990 
     Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act and 
     the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act. ``Water 
     policy had been a socialized system based entirely on 
     subsidies and political considerations,'' said Tom Jensen, 
     who got to know Mr. Graff while serving as the chief water 
     lawyer for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources 
     subcommittee on water and power under Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) 
     in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
       Mr. Graff's ability to influence the legislative process--
     he was dubbed ``the Godfather'' by California Lawyer 
     magazine--stemmed from his impressive analytical ability, 
     array of contacts and listening skills, and a willingness to 
     use tough legal and public relations tactics when needed.
       ``He was subtle and strategic. He could play at every level 
     of the game,'' Jensen said. ``He could be a spotlight-
     grabbing advocate or he could be utterly invisible, insidious 
     and influential.''
       Mr. Graff was known for writing concise, one- or two-
     paragraph missives that crystallized key policy questions. He 
     once ghostwrote a letter for a member of Congress that 
     ultimately prodded the Interior Department to release water 
     from Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam in order to allow the Colorado 
     River to flow more freely through the Grand Canyon.
       Thomas Jacob Graff was born Jan. 20, 1944, in Honduras to 
     German Jews who had fled Nazi Germany. He grew up in 
     Syracuse, N.Y., and graduated from Harvard College in 1965 
     and from Harvard Law School in 1967.
       He attended the London School of Economics, was a 
     legislative assistant for New York Mayor John V. Lindsay and 
     an associate at a law firm in San Francisco before opening 
     the defense fund's California office. Defense fund head Fred 
     Krupp once said Mr. Graff joined the organization because of 
     the affinity the young lawyer felt ``for an organization 
     whose informal motto back then was `sue the bastards.' ''
       His marriage to Joan Messing Graff ended in divorce. 
     Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Sharona Barzilay of 
     Oakland; a daughter from the first marriage, Samantha Graff 
     of Oakland; two children from his second marriage, Rebecca 
     Graff of Cambridge, Mass., and Benjamin Graff of San Jose, 
     Calif.; a sister; and two grandsons.
       A fan of the Oakland Athletics, Mr. Graff liked to say that 
     not only had he managed to tutor his children in how to score 
     baseball games with precision but that this training proved 
     to be invaluable when his daughter Rebecca chose to pursue a 
     doctorate in statistics at Harvard.
       A number of prominent politicians mourned Mr. Graff's 
     death, including Bradley, who said the lawyer's ``good sense 
     and judgment guided'' the federal 1992 water law. California 
     Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), speaking at the signing 
     ceremony Thursday for a California water reform law, lamented 
     the fact that Mr. Graff was not in the audience.
       ``The reason why I wanted to mention him is because he was 
     a great environmentalist,'' Schwarzenegger said, ``someone 
     that was very heavily working for 30 years on preservation, 
     conservation and protecting the environment, protecting the 
     [Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta] and who was very 
     instrumental to get us where we are here today.''
                                  ____


              [From the Contra Costa Times, Nov. 12, 2009]

     Tom Graff, California Environmental Water Pioneer, Dies at 65

                           (By Mike Taugher)

       Thomas J. Graff, the Harvard-educated lawyer who was among 
     the most influential environmentalists in California water 
     policy during the last 30 years, died Thursday morning after 
     a long battle with cancer. He was 65.
       Graff, of Oakland, gave up a career at a prestigious San 
     Francisco law firm to open the California office of the 
     Environmental Defense Fund in the attic of a UC Berkeley 
     fraternity house in 1971, helping the organization grow in 
     the following decades into one of the most powerful voices on 
     environmental issues ranging from climate change to oceans to 
     water policy.
       Friends and colleagues recalled Graff as exceptionally 
     smart, interested in the views of others, a master negotiator 
     and an energetic and forward thinker. He was devoted to his 
     family and a good friend and mentor to many colleagues, 
     friends said.
       ``He was one of the earliest environmentalists to advocate 
     (that) if water could be marketed and moved more freely, it 
     would be used more efficiently and we wouldn't need more 
     dams,'' said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager for 
     the State Water Contractors, a water industry group.
       ``You could be arguing violently with him one minute and 
     hugging him goodbye a half-

[[Page E2797]]

     hour later. He was a lion in the water environmental movement 
     over the last three decades,'' King Moon added.
       Graff was born Jan. 20, 1944, in Honduras to German Jews 
     who had fled Nazi Germany. He grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and 
     later attended Harvard College, Harvard Law School and the 
     London School of Economics.
       At the Environmental Defense Fund, he was a champion of the 
     idea of using market forces to improve the environment by 
     pushing for water marketing in California, and for plans to 
     cap-and-trade sulfur dioxide emissions in the eastern states 
     to combat acid rain. ``He was a great listener,'' recalled 
     Spreck Rosekrans, a water policy analyst at the organization. 
     ``He always got along with people.''
       He was also a driving force behind the Central Valley 
     Project Improvement Act, the 1992 law that reworked one of 
     California's biggest water projects and perhaps the most 
     important piece of environmental legislation in the career of 
     Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.
       ``One of Tom's great insights was in advocating for, and 
     helping to develop, the water-marketing agreements that 
     helped bring the business world and the urban water community 
     on board,'' Miller said last year in a speech to Congress.
       Graff was a leader in the political fights against 
     construction of a Peripheral Canal around the Delta. When the 
     Sierra Club was debating whether to accept a compromise that 
     would allow the canal to be built, Graff argued that the 
     canal would allow San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern 
     California to take too much water out of the estuary. He sued 
     the East Bay Municipal Utility District to block plans to tap 
     into the American River, starting a 17-year legal battle over 
     the health of the river and the Oakland-based district's 
     contract rights to water. The utility eventually gave up its 
     plans to build an intake on the American River and reached an 
     agreement with environmentalists and Sacramento interests to 
     move the intake downstream to the Sacramento River.
       Graff is survived by his wife, Sharona Barzilay, the 
     assistant head at the College Preparatory School of Oakland; 
     sister Claudia Bial of Fort Lee, N.J.; daughter Samantha, 
     son-in-law Miguel Helft, and grandchildren Avi and Rafael 
     Helft of Oakland; son Benjamin of San Jose; and daughter 
     Rebecca of Cambridge, Mass.
       A private memorial is scheduled this weekend. A public 
     service will be scheduled in the coming weeks.

                          ____________________