A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 2, 2007
1. Top Items
Central Valley farmers seeking big irrigation deal; Proposal calls for district to clean up toxic mess, U.S. to forgive debt, promise water - San Francisco Chronicle
Water plan swaps a debt; Westlands would be off hook for millions if it fixes drainage - Sacramento Bee
Central Valley farmers seeking big irrigation deal; Proposal calls for district to clean up toxic mess, U.S. to forgive debt, promise water
San Francisco Chronicle – 8/2/07
By Peter Fimrite, staff writer
A complex arrangement in which a group of
The proposed deal, which is still subject to extensive environmental review and congressional approval, would ensure water rights for landowners in the Westlands Water District for 60 years, more than double the length of a normal water contract.
In return, the sprawling water district would assume responsibility for cleaning up a polluted mess created 20 years ago when naturally occurring salt and selenium drained off irrigated farmland, killing or deforming wildlife.
The
However, the water agency and its farmers owe the federal government nearly $500 million - debt that has lingered since the 1930s, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation fronted the money to build the massive Central Valley Project, which reallocates a significant chunk of
Water issues are becoming increasingly important after a dry winter that has prompted several communities, including
Experts are predicting more frequent droughts as a result of global warming. As a result, jurisdictional battles over water rights could become more contentious, a possible factor in the water district's renewed efforts to reach an agreement.
Feinstein said the proposed deal would relieve the government of an "enormous financial burden," but she added: "The devil is in the details.
"The proposal was encouraging and reflects a major shift from earlier proposals," Feinstein said in a statement Wednesday.
She emphasized that earlier proposals to grant huge amounts of water to the farmers, potentially threatening water supplies in the Bay Area during dry years, are off the table.
"Let me be clear," Feinstein said. "There is no discussion of granting any water district guaranteed water rights, regardless of drought, at the expense of cities or other water users."
The high-stakes negotiations pit politically connected farmers with vast tracts of cropland against conservationists who are opposed to giving away precious drinking water.
Many environmentalists are skeptical that Westlands can be trusted to adequately clean up the toxic drainage, but they were reluctant to criticize Wednesday's proposal, which is still subject to revision and negotiation during a meeting tentatively scheduled for September.
"These are delicate negotiations, and the NRDC is withholding judgment until we have something more substantive to comment on," said Craig Noble, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The group criticized earlier proposals as water diversions for farmers at the expense of taxpayers, fish and wildlife.
"The details of the proposal discussed today have yet to be finalized," Noble said. "We look forward to working with the parties when it comes time to review the actual language of a draft contract and draft legislation."
The Westlands Water District is a coalition of agribusinesses in the
A decade ago, the district sued the government after a botched federal project left some 200,000 acres of cropland tainted by salty, selenium-rich runoff, leaving dead and deformed birds in its wake.
The proposed deal would settle that lawsuit. Westlands officials could not be reached for comment, but the deal would reportedly be worthwhile to them because it would relieve them of $490 million owed the federal government for construction of the Central Valley Project. The plan, as it stands, is for the water district to use the money that would otherwise be spent on the debt toward implementing a drainage solution and cleanup operations.
Under the proposal, Westlands would also save a few million dollars a year on operations and maintenance of the water system.
The exact number has not been finalized. The district's 25-year water contract would be increased to 60, ensuring irrigation water to farms even during drought.
The proposal would also rescind rules that required farms over 960 acres to pay more for their water. Those rules were an attempt to keep small, family-owned farms in business.
Online resources
For more information on the Central Valley Project:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/02/BA8KRBF772.DTL
Water plan swaps a debt; Westlands would be off hook for millions if it fixes drainage
Sacramento
By Michael Doyle, staff writer
The Westlands Water District would get 50-year contracts for San Luis Reservoir water, under the plan presented Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The federal government would also forgive the debt Westlands still owes for reservoir and canal construction.
In exchange, the Rhode Island-sized Westlands district would become responsible for fixing the Valley's irrigation drainage mess. But unlike politically incendiary earlier proposals, Westlands would not take ownership of the publicly built irrigation system.
"It seems to be a sound proposal," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview, following a two-hour briefing Wednesday afternoon. "This is much more workable; I'm much more optimistic."
Negotiators will begin drafting legislation in the coming weeks. Even so, Feinstein said it would be very difficult to finish the legislation this year, and the policy and political challenges remain abundant.
"This is a very serious problem, and it's one that we need to solve," Westlands General Manager Thomas Birmingham said.
The irrigation drainage problem is rooted in a half-finished plan for aiding farmers on the
The resulting San Luis Reservoir has a capacity of 2 million acre-feet of water. The plan's second part was supposed to include a 188-mile drain for carrying used irrigation water off to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The drain was never finished, causing myriad environmental problems to back up.
"The drainage issue has got to be resolved," said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources. "It's an issue that has languished for a long time."
A federal judge has ruled the government is legally obliged to provide the promised irrigation drainage. The Bush administration estimates this could cost upwards of $2.6 billion, prompting officials to search for alternatives.
Feinstein convened the briefing Wednesday, and is taking the legislative lead in attacking the irrigation problem. Important details of the proposal presented behind closed doors by Kirk Rogers, Sacramento-based regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation, still remain cloaked in secrecy.
The basic plan, though, represents a variation on a theme first floated in February. Then, officials suggested transferring the San Luis Reservoir and associated canals and pumping plants to Westlands and other local irrigation districts.
Officials subsequently dropped the transfer idea in favor of another kind of a swap.
Federal officials now propose forgiving the construction debt that currently stands at $490 million. Under existing irrigation contracts, Westlands and other water districts are slowly paying back what they owe to the government.
In lieu of repaying the government, the water districts would become responsible for an irrigation drainage solution. Water district officials believe they can build for $700 million a drainage system that combines "biotreatment," evaporation, salt-tolerant crops and a hauling away of accumulated salts.
"I think they've made progress," said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.
Costa will be introducing the House version of the irrigation drainage legislation, once it is ready.
Negotiators must still meet with Environmental Protection Agency officials, fish and wildlife representatives, and other lawmakers who have scores of policy questions. For instance, the latest proposal would exempt Westlands from the acreage limits first imposed on federally subsidized irrigation water recipients in 1902. In theory, subsidized irrigators are now restricted to 960 acres.
Environmentalists, likewise, wonder what power the public will have to oversee Westlands' drainage program and under what conditions water deliveries might still be reduced. The proposed 50-year water contract, twice the current length, worries some.
Feinstein insisted, though, that the plan does not include guaranteeing farmers water at the expense of cities.
"The devil is in the details," Feinstein said. #
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/304314.html
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