[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 1/10/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

January 10, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

Guest Column: Peripheral canal would destroy, not save, delta agriculture - Modesto Bee

 

Obituary: Sweigert helped protect water rights in region - Sacramento Bee

 

 

Guest Column: Peripheral canal would destroy, not save, delta agriculture

Modesto Bee – 1/10/08

By Alex Hildebrand, of Manteca, is a farmer and engineer

 

Prior to the Delta Vision process, the Blue Ribbon Task Force members and the governor apparently decided that a peripheral canal of some sort was necessary to supply water to the state, and that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could be protected better than it is now while operating an isolated conveyance canal.

 

These assumptions are wrong. The task force did not discover these errors because they ignored the reasons a canal is not necessary for water supply and the reasons the delta would be trashed if Sacramento River water were diverted into a canal before it enters the delta.

 

This apparent pro-canal bias led to a failure to address either the impacts of a canal or alternatives that would meet Delta Vision's goal of water supply without a canal.

 

The report does not call for analysis of the increase in salinity in the delta that any isolated export of Sacramento River water would cause, particularly during months and years when flow in the river is low. Fresh water inflow from the San Joaquin and east side rivers already has been largely eliminated by export to the Bay Area and elsewhere. A technical analysis soon will be available that demonstrates this inevitable rise in salinity. Such a rise would be a disaster. It not only would destroy delta agriculture, but would cause the delta to become a salty inland bay.

 

The report ignores the fact that exporting water through the isolated portion of a "dual- conveyance facility" would increase salinity to higher than acceptable levels in the through-delta portion for either export to others or for use in the delta. A dual-conveyance system is therefore unsustainable.

 

The report does not make it clear that a canal would have to go through the delta -- not around it -- because of existing development on the east side. It would sever waterways, roads, farm fields, irrigation and drainage systems, and the circulation of channel waters.

 

It would create blind sloughs where salinity, dissolved oxygen and water hyacinth could not be controlled. It would be a barrier to major flood flows from south and east of the canal and cause increased flooding. It would cost billions of dollars and do nothing to increase the already inadequate statewide developed water supply.

 

The report does not even mention the plan submitted to the task force by the South and Central Delta water agencies, which incorporates the Delta Corridor Plan. It would separate and protect the San Joaquin fishery from the export system; it would keep in-channel salinity at levels that would preserve delta farms, and it would assist in quick recovery of exports and delta protection in the event of multiple levee failures caused by a major earthquake. It would maximize the water available for export while protecting the delta.

 

It also would cost less and could be implemented faster.

 

The task force report also does not mention that the fish species most endangered thrive best in water with low salinity.

 

Delta farmers are the primary mountaineers of the nonarable levees that preserve the basic pattern of channels and lands that now constitute the delta. The report does not acknowledge that these farmers could not survive an increase in salinity caused by isolated conveyance of export water. It does not propose another means of levee maintenance. It does not discuss the consequences if levees are abandoned.

 

Overall, the report proposes protection of delta agriculture, and then makes proposals that would destroy agriculture. #

http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/175797.html

 

 

Obituary: Sweigert helped protect water rights in region

Sacramento Bee – 1/10/08

By Robert D. Dávila, staff writer

 

William T. Sweigert, a lawyer and expert on California water law who helped safeguard rights to the American River for developing Sacramento suburbs, died Sunday. He was 81.

 

He died at his Auburn home of lung cancer, said his son, Bill Sweigert.

 

Mr. Sweigert was widely recognized as a statewide authority on water rights, his specialty for more than half a century. He represented many local water districts in Northern California, including agencies serving unincorporated communities in Sacramento and Placer counties that boomed in population after World War II.

 

"He was one of the giants of California water law," said Zane Vorhes, attorney for the San Juan Water District. "Not many people had the longevity and amount of experience that Bill had."

 

Mr. Sweigert helped found the Arcade Water District in 1954 to serve homes and businesses in Carmichael and Arden Arcade. During the 1960s, he won a major lawsuit against the city of Sacramento securing the district's rights to American River water. He served as the district's general counsel until 2002, when Arcade merged with the Northridge Water District to form the Sacramento Suburban Water District.

 

He was attorney for the Fair Oaks Water District and the San Juan Water District, which supplies smaller agencies serving Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, Folsom, Granite Bay and Orangevale. In addition, he represented the Rocklin-Loomis Municipal Utility District – known today as the South Placer Municipal Utility District – for more than 30 years. He also served as a commissioner and volunteer firefighter for the Loomis Fire District.

 

"He was very much a civic-minded guy," said Tom Tomich, a former San Juan board member.

 

William Thomas Sweigert was born in 1926 and raised in San Francisco, where his father was a federal judge. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1943 and served in the Pacific with the Coast Guard during World War II.

 

 He worked as a firefighter for the California Department of Forestry while earning bachelor's and law degrees from the University of San Francisco.

 

He moved to Sacramento to work as assistant secretary to the state Senate before joining the Desmond, Miller and Artz law firm. He set up his own practice in 1960 and moved his office in 1980 to Loomis.

 

He married Mary Desmond in 1948. The couple had a daughter and six sons before divorcing. He married Trudi Busam in 1967.

 

Mr. Sweigert found escape from the complexities of water law as a cowboy. A lifelong equestrian, he rode trails with the Reno Sierra Riders and the Sacramento Horsemen's Association. He was a longtime active member and past president of the Sonoma County Trailblazers.

 

He loved reciting cowboy poetry and performed often at local schools and the Loomis Cowpoke Gathering. He was a member of the Little Big Horn Associates, a historical group, and he "rode every inch of Custer's trail there in Montana," his son said.

 

"He made friends everywhere he went," Bill Sweigert said. "He was a precision storyteller who always made people laugh. He was always able to make a connection with anybody." #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/623497.html

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