[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 8/30/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

August 30, 2007

 

1.  Top Item

 

EPA questions toxics cleanup proposal in exchange for water rights

San Francisco Chronicle – 8/30/07

By Peter Fimrite, staff writer

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concerns about a proposal to have a group of San Joaquin Valley farmers clean up a toxic farm-water drainage problem in exchange for promises of water and debt relief from the federal government, according to an EPA memo provided to The Chronicle on Wednesday.

 

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 and deforming wildlife.

 

The Aug. 21 memo written by EPA Regional Administrator Carolyn Yale, expresses reservations about the feasibility of management, treatment and disposal of the contaminants by agricultural interests without government assistance and oversight.

 

"We are concerned about the possibility of implementing a drainage plan which allows continued generation of high volumes of contaminated drainage without the assurance of effective and economic treatment and disposal," states the memo, which was addressed to Frederico Barajas, the regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

 

It urges the bureau to implement extensive monitoring of the cleanup program and testing of drainage water.

 

The U.S. government has calculated it would cost $2.6 billion to clean up the mess. Westlands officials believe they can do it for less than $1 billion, according to government sources.

 

The water agency and its farmers owe the federal government nearly $500 million. The farmers would have that debt forgiven under the latest proposal. That debt has lingered since the 1930s, when the Bureau of Reclamation advanced the money to build the massive water distribution system known as the Central Valley Project. That system pumps water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and redistributes it to cities and farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

 

The high-stakes negotiations pit the politically connected farmers with vast tracts of cropland against conservationists who are opposed to giving away precious drinking water. Several environmental groups have already expressed some of the same concerns outlined in the EPA memo.

 

The Westlands Water District is a coalition of agribusinesses in the San Joaquin Valley that use water from the Central Valley Project, which in addition to supplying irrigation water also delivers drinking water to about 1 million households. Much of the food in California, including lettuce and tomatoes, is grown with the project's water.

 

Karen Schambach, the California director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said turning cleanup over to the farmers is asking for another mishap like the one at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, where thousands of dead and deformed birds were linked to the runoff. The group gave the memo to The Chronicle.

 

"The Bureau of Reclamation seems to be peddling selenium snake oil," Schambach said. "It would be far more effective and 10 times less expensive to retire the land and shut off the irrigation pumps."

 

Given the financial interests at stake, the pumps are not likely to be shut down completely, according to experts, but the complex negotiations are far from over. They are going on at a time when jurisdictional battles over water rights are becoming more contentious after a dry winter. Predictions of more frequent droughts as a result of global warming have not helped matters.

 

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Westlands Water District could not be reached for comment.  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/30/BAHVRRMP6.DTL

####