Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 25, 2008
1. Top Item -
Delta deadlock
A
The
By Russell Clemings and Dennis Pollock
The 42-mile ditch would have linked the Sacramento River to pumps near
But rejection of Proposition 9 didn't settle anything. Instead, it locked state water politics, which revolve around the delta, into a chronic stalemate.
More than a quarter-century later, advocates for cities, farms and wildlife routinely duke it out in courtrooms and legislative halls. Crops on the
Today, some think only one thing may break the delta deadlock: an epic disaster.
The potential for such an event grows every year. Century-old levees within the delta grow ever weaker, raising prospects of a Hurricane Katrina-like catastrophe -- a flood of salty water that would submerge hundreds of square miles of farmland and historic towns like Isleton and Locke.
It might happen after an earthquake. Or it might happen as a result of erosion as sea levels rise amid global warming. No one knows when the delta will reach that tipping point. That it eventually will is viewed as certain.
"Major changes in the Delta and in
The quarter-century of debate over the delta's fate since the
But the cuts haven't helped. Populations of salmon and delta smelt have crashed despite multiple court interventions. This year's
The
The last effort to solve the delta's problems, called CalFed, took almost a decade and collapsed when Congress and the Legislature balked at writing blank checks for solutions designed to keep everyone happy.
Now, the Delta Vision task force is working on a new effort to repair the broken delta. Its biggest problem could be that every conceivable solution has its avid supporters, but also its bitter critics.
New dams, aggressive water conservation and farmland retirement are all on the table.
So, again, is the
Prime habitat for fish
For almost a century, the central focus of
Between north and south, at the headwaters of
Even in this altered state, the delta remains prime habitat for many fish species and a major migratory route for salmon. Once, their fry could count on being swept to sea by strong river currents. Now, they're as likely to be confused and diverted by suction from the water project pumps.
Water users who rely on those pumps aren't doing much better. Even as overall water exports have risen steadily, supplies for some
The Delta Vision task force has begun work on strategies for dual goals of improving the delta ecosystem and making water supplies more reliable.
Hopes are high. But so were hopes for CalFed, a joint state-federal program launched in 1994, when the state was still shaking off its worst drought since the late 1970s.
In 2000, CalFed proposed an $8.6 billion program of water storage and improved conservation. Beset by bureaucratic rivalries and competing interests, the plans languished, even though they avoided the contentious
Now, CalFed's collapse is a rare point of consensus among quarrelling parties.
"There isn't any doubt about the failure of the CalFed program," said Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, one of the state's biggest farm water users.
No approach perfect
Simple solutions can be hard to resist.
* Courts stepping in because rare species are being harmed? Weaken their protections.
* Too much water being used by farms and cities south of the delta? Make them conserve.
* An inefficient system lets huge amounts of water flow into the sea in wet years? Build more dams to capture and store it.
A closer look reveals that each approach has obstacles.
Farmers and other major water users sometimes question the intrinsic value of a fish, whether it is a prized wild salmon or the lowly minnowlike delta smelt. They talk about balancing the needs of wildlife with those of humans.
To Zeke Grader, the two are the same.
Grader is executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. His members have sat out this year's salmon season, not by choice, but because federal fisheries managers banned salmon fishing off
Some boats that fished for salmon switched to albacore. Others doubled down on crab. Neither is a good alternative.
"They'd rather be fishing for salmon," Grader said. "That's been the anchor fishery for our fleet all along the coast of
Diners who want to order wild salmon are paying a high price. So are taxpayers in general. In the farm bill passed by Congress early this year, they ponied up $170 million in disaster assistance for those affected by the ban.
Exactly why salmon populations have collapsed is open to debate. But Grader is convinced that it has to do with the recent rise in water exports from the delta. Flows of fresh water through the delta, he said, are needed to help salmon find their way from their
"That fresh water going out to the ocean was the key thing for maintaining the estuary," he said. "If you start reducing the amount of water to that estuary, you're killing it."
The delta smelt is less glamorous than the salmon. But it is officially listed as a threatened species. It appears to be just as sensitive to increased pumping. And its sorry state has led to court-ordered cuts in water exports.
In a series of rulings late last year in cases brought by environmental advocates, a
Next month, in a second case resulting from an environmental lawsuit, Wanger will hear evidence about water project operations and their effects on two Chinook salmon runs and one type of steelhead.
Some urge conservation
One way to live with reduced pumping is to use less water. Some environmental advocates argue that
"We call it the virtual river," he said.
In recent reports, the Oakland-based Pacific Institute has estimated how much could be conserved. One conclusion: Urban areas could cut use by 30%, saving 2.3 million acre-feet annually. That's about half what the two big projects have pumped in an average year over the past two decades.
"The savings that are available through water conservation and efficiency are as great as some of the water supply projects, and they can be achieved with much lower economic and environmental costs," said Heather Cooley, a senior research associate at the institute.
Most of the institute's work focuses on things like requiring more efficient plumbing fixtures, and using tiered pricing to penalize the biggest water users. A second report will make recommendations for farm water users.
"Those who are wasting water should be sent a very strong price signal," Cooley said.
Some of the institute's proposals represent major changes. Lawn sizes could be limited. Homeowners could be forced to replace inefficient plumbing when they sell. To the extent that such measures aren't widely adopted, the institute's estimates may be high.
Similarly, some farmers question how much room there is for further conservation in their operations.
Westlands grower John Diener has spent nearly a million dollars in the past five years on systems that use less water. He scoffs at the suggestion that he and his fellow farmers could do more.
"If that were the case, they would already have done it," he said. "It's not in our economic interest to waste water."
One large local irrigation supplier, the Israeli firm Netafim, says it has supplied Westlands growers with micro-irrigation and drip systems for 160,000 acres this decade.
In an even more drastic move, Westlands has bought out growers on about 100,000 acres and shifted their water to other land. But having shaky water supplies makes that increasingly difficult.
"At some point, it's unaffordable to retire land," Westlands grower Mark Borba said. "It requires investors who purchase a bond, and they look at the collateral and say that is not a good investment."
Retiring land from farming also harms small towns that rise and fall with the farm economy. And
Others want new dams
Among water users, talk about the delta often turns to increasing the water supply, or at least increasing the reliability of existing supplies. Often, that means new dams.
When it issued its 2000 report, the CalFed program identified a dozen dam sites. Eight years later, Schwarzenegger and Sen. Dianne Feinstein are promoting a $9.3 billion state water bond, of which $3 billion would go to storage and $2 billion to improving efficiency.
If recent history is any guide, new dams will face many obstacles. Since completion of the 2.4 million acre-feet New Melones Dam in 1979 on the
As a result, the water bond faces uncertain prospects despite its bipartisan backers. Since its introduction in July, it has made no progress toward the November ballot, as the Legislature has struggled to pass a state budget.
The long-maligned
Once politically radioactive -- Prop. 9 was opposed by more than 90% of voters in some Northern California counties and by more than 70% even in the central San Joaquin Valley -- the canal has gained traction in recent months as a possible solution.
Advocates say it would help fish by separating the pumps from the delta and help water users by creating a direct connection between the pumps and
Canal backers such as
"The handwriting is on the wall," he said. "If we are going to conserve fish in the delta, improve the delta ecology and sustain the economy of California, we're going to have to completely change the way we convey water from north of the delta to south of the delta."
Environmental advocates are skeptical of that. In any case, they say any delta fix must deal first with the crash in fish populations and other ecological damage.
"What we've said about a
After the Public Policy Institute report, five congressional Democrats from Northern California -- George Miller, Ellen Tauscher, Doris Matsui, Mike Thompson and Jerry McNerney -- quickly issued a joint statement expressing doubts about the
On the other side, the Delta Vision task force's latest draft recommendations say a Peripheral Canal-like "isolated facility" is "the linchpin to managing Delta water supply and ecosystem functions."
Tom Graff, senior counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, was an opponent of the 1982
It's not the first time observers of
Will the second succeed where the first and its predecessors failed? What will it take for the warring sides to reach consensus, rescue the delta's ecology, save its beleaguered levees and stabilize supplies for water users?
"That's the great unanswered question," Nelson said. "Is
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