[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 9/18/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

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

 

September 18, 2007

 

1.  Top Item

 

Farmers say water ruling will hurt river; San Joaquin restoration plans being revised - Stockton Record

 

Editorial: Farm bureau's position change on river worrisome; There's a great danger for both sides if the settlement collapses - Fresno Bee

 

 

Farmers say water ruling will hurt river; San Joaquin restoration plans being revised

Stockton Record – 9/18/07

By Alex Breitler, staff writer

 

A judge's ruling last month requiring less water to be pumped from the Delta could jeopardize an ambitious plan to restore the San Joaquin River, farmers warn.

 

The Madera County Farm Bureau passed a resolution last week asking for the plan to be revised before funding is approved by Congress.

 

The restoration plan, announced last September, came from 18 years of legal battles over the San Joaquin. It calls for the reintroduction of salmon to the river, portions of which are dry most years because of water diverted for farms.

 

The agreement allows farmers to get back at least some of the water they lose through "recirculation" - a process in which water from the Delta is pumped upstream and returned to the San Joaquin.

 

But farmers are nervous that a recent ruling in a separate case will reduce permanently the amount of water that can be exported from the Delta, to protect threatened smelt.

 

"The (Madera County) Farm Bureau feels that water is going to be lost," Chairman Dennis Meisner Jr. said.

 

The bureau's vote is another setback for the restoration plan, which has stalled in Congress. Legislators must approve it to free up to $250million in funding.

 

Representatives of 16 conservation groups last week sent letters to the House Natural Resources Committee saying they were "very concerned" that a lack of action on the agreement could delay its implementation.

 

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a conservation group pushing for San Joaquin River restoration, and the Friant Water Users Authority, whose farmers traditionally get most of the water, have said the agreement still has support and that preliminary planning work for the river restoration has begun. #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/A_NEWS/709180327

 

 

Editorial: Farm bureau's position change on river worrisome; There's a great danger for both sides if the settlement collapses

Fresno Bee – 9/18/07

 

The Madera County Farm Bureau pulled back its support for a landmark settlement meant to restore the San Joaquin River last week, and that's a cause for concern all around. It doesn't necessarily mean the year-old settlement is unraveling, but it's a step back from the enthusiasm -- and relief -- that was expressed when the plan was first announced.

 

The settlement seeks to end a lawsuit filed in 1988 by environmentalists unhappy with the historic diversion of water from the river after Friant Dam was built. The San Joaquin River, which once supported steamboat traffic between Fresno and the Bay Area, as well as two thriving salmon runs, dries up much of the year downstream of the dam.

 

The water instead is shipped to the east side of the Valley, where it helped create an immensely productive -- and profitable -- farming industry.

 

But the federal lawsuit threw everything up in the air. Farmers were afraid the judge, Lawrence Karlton, might take so much of the river's water for restoration that it could end east-side agriculture or at least stunt it tremendously. Environmentalists also were concerned that they could come away with nothing if the judge ruled for the farmers.

 

So the compromise settlement was born and greeted with much support initially.

 

But it wasn't unanimous. In particular, Rep. Devin Nunes, who represents much of the east-side farming belt, has fought assiduously to derail the settlement.

 

He has argued that the settlement will take too much water from farmers, with no guarantee that other supplies will be secured to make up the difference. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Friant Water Users Authority, who negotiated the settlement, have estimated that farmers would lose about 19% of their current supplies of Friant water.

 

Other obstacles have surfaced in Congress, which must pass certain legislation, as well as provide a significant fraction of the needed funding, for the settlement to succeed.

 

The Madera Farm Bureau's action in withdrawing support for the settlement may be an isolated event. It could also mark the beginning of the end for the settlement. But there's a great danger for both sides if the settlement collapses.

 

The lawsuit would be back in front of the judge, with the same uncertainty of outcome that pushed the two sides to the bargaining table to begin with.

 

If the farmers are the ones who pull the plug on this settlement, it could end with them losing even more water -- a pyrrhic victory that could spell the end of east-side agriculture as we know it today. Everyone should be very careful here.  #

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/141589.html