Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 28, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Editorial: Let region chart its water future
While there's plenty to be concerned about in the latest effort to solve
While it was encouraging that Delta Vision, a self-proclaimed "blue ribbon task force," came to the north valley this week, all we can do is wonder how long this latest flavor-of-the-month approach to water will last.
Delta Vision comes on the heels of the expensive, failed Cal-Fed bureaucracy that accomplished little except wasting money. That was followed by an exalted plan pushed by the Northern California Water Association that advocated regional cooperation and protection of
Now comes the Delta Vision task force, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's handpicked group that was chosen 18 months ago to make recommendations about how to fix the problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the linchpin in any water debate.
The Delta Vision group is working on its third draft of a plan that it hopes to send to the governor by October, after which Schwarzenegger will try to find a legislator to sponsor a package of bills that includes water recommendations. And then there's the matter of finding a few billion dollars to implement them.
Delta Vision sounds quite different from the regional plan. Instead of letting locals decide their water future, Delta Vision uses the same approach as Cal-Fed — a bunch of top-down mandates rather than locally focused solutions.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors has many concerns. In a four-page letter to the chair of the Delta Vision task force, the supervisors agreed that the delta — both the levees and the fisheries — is in dire need of repair. But the county is concerned that the state is ignoring local cooperation and area-of-origin water rights.
While the state task force is focused on the delta and improving the way of life for that unique region, it seems to be unaware that depleting resources from our unique region isn't the way to do it.
"Revitalizing the delta ecosystem must not come at the expense of other equally valuable ecosystems," the supervisors wrote.
Local people have a right to be concerned. Can the state say that the needs of the south and urban areas are more important than our needs? Can the state decide, in effect, that delta smelt are more important that Butte Creek's spring-run salmon, therefore the delta will get more water? Will the state pump our aquifers? Will the state say the inexpensive water our farmers get from century-old water rights is too inexpensive? Does the state realize that, just like the delta way of life, ours would be forever harmed if our lakes were depleted, our streams ran dry and the rivers were channeled? Does the state know that rivers and lakes are more to us than just a water delivery system?
We're thrilled that somebody is looking closely at the environment and the state's water supply. We worry, however, that our region's lack of political clout will mean we get flattened by larger regions to the south.
We hope they remember that while we don't have clout, we do have water, and we deserve a bigger voice in the future of our most important natural resource.#
http://www.chicoer.com/opinion/ci_10323346
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