Fox & Friends falsely claims $54 million went to save a Napa Valley Wine Train

Fox & Friends revives falsehood about $54 million of the stimulus going to a wine train. On the February 25 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, host Gretchen Carlson said, “lots of stimulus money wasted like $54 million for a Napa Valley Wine Train tour. Why? We're going straight to the source. The executive director of the program will join us.” Later in the program, they interviewed Glen Walker, the Executive Director of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board about stimulus “waste,” and displayed a graphic stating that $54 million went to the train. Despite asking Walker to respond to their claims that this project and several others were “waste,” co-host Brian Kilmeade ended the segment before Walker could directly respond to their claims. From Fox & Friends:

Fox & Friends previously advanced falsehood that stimulus funds spent to “save” Wine Train. On the December 14 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy, Carlson, and Kilmeade falsely claimed that stimulus money was being used to “save” train tracks in Napa and that the tracks had received $54 million for the project. [Fox & Friends, 12/14/09]

FACT: The project does not fund Wine Train, but is to prevent “flooding of downtown Napa”

Flood-control project relocates Wine Train. The award description for the project states: “The Napa Valley Wine Train Relocation project is a flood control job designed to minimize flooding of downtown Napa, CA. The existing railroad bridge over the Napa River is at an elevation that impedes the flow of the 100 year storm event. This backs up river flows from major storms and floods homes and businesses. In addition the river has an oxbow channel which constricts the major flows further adding to the flooding of downtown.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracted with Suulutaaq Inc., an Alaskan firm, to complete the project.

Napa Valley Register: Officials said project “not done at the behest of or for the benefit of the Wine Train.” According to a December 11 Napa Valley Register article, “The funding is part of the larger $99.5 million in stimulus funds awarded to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Napa's flood control project” and the “goal is to prevent another major flood like the one that ripped through central Napa on New Year's Eve 2005, causing an estimated $115 million in damage.” The article noted that "[o]fficials have said in the past that the project is not done at the behest of or for the benefit of the Wine Train, but to maintain the only rail right of way through the valley and lift two train trestles high enough that they will not catch debris, slow fast-moving water and cause flooding downtown."

Napa County spokesman: “We're not doing anything to protect the train in any way.” According to a local ABC report, Barry Martin, spokesman for the Napa Flood Protection District, stated of the project, “We're not doing anything to protect the train in any way, we're just getting the train out of the way so we can give the protection to the downtown area, the residents and businesses closest to the river.” The article also quoted Congressman Mike Thompson's statement that "[t]he wine train would continue to operate with or without the flood control project, this merely allows the flood project to be completed." Further, on December 14, Fox & Friends hosted Martin, who told them it's a “flood-control project” and that it “will absolutely protect locals from flooding and absolutely not is it a waste of money.” Martin also said: “Our project is different from other flood-control projects. It is land intensive. We are moving things out of the way where the floodwaters go rather than trying to deepen or straight and the river, which we have learned over time is not a very environmentally sound practice and it doesn't really work very well. So this is a new approach to flood control, we have been under construction for many years, and we've have moved many facilities, buildings, railroad tracks and bridges. It's a large project, and this is just one piece of it.” Despite this, Fox & Friends has continued to forward the false claim that the stimulus funds went to the Wine Train.

Wine Train spokesman “shocked” to hear that people think train “received $54 million in stimulus money -- which, of course, we didn't.” In an open letter to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Melodie Hilton, director of marketing and public relations for Napa Valley Wine Train, stated, “I was shocked to hear that people high up in Washington think that the Napa Valley Wine Train received $54 million in stimulus money -- which, of course, we didn't.” Hilton further stated:

It worries me that no calls were made before we were held up to the entire American public -- a small business in Northern California -- as an enormous source of government waste.

If you had spoken with us, or even project officials, you might have asked: Why would the Napa Valley Wine Train need, or take, $54 million in taxpayer money to move a small section of rail line 33 feet? The answer is: we didn't!

So, who does? Napa County has an award-winning flood control project and design; one that was proposed, and approved by voters, many years ago. This is the project that is being funded. That design has impacted a lot of businesses. It has necessitated the movement of several rights-of-way, and at my last count four or five bridges (including the Wine Train's). The goal of this project is to protect the city of Napa from continued flooding, period, not enhance specific companies.