Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 17, 2009
1. Top Items–
Delta peripheral canal protest comes up short
Sacramento Bee
Lawmakers, back from recess, must act fast
S.F. Chronicle
State lawmakers shift focus to pressing water problems
The Desert Sun
Democratic water package at a glance
San Diego Union-Tribune
Dan Walters: A new shot at settling Delta water war
Sacramento Bee
Ending Delta denial
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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Delta peripheral canal protest comes up short
Sacramento Bee-8/17/09
By Hudson Sangree and Matt Weiser
What was billed as a "million boat float" to protest plans to build a peripheral canal in the Delta looked like it might wash up short Sunday.
A rubber dinghy carrying protest signs was the only boat obviously connected to the event at a riverside press conference at Sacramento's Robert T. Matsui Waterfront Park.
Organizers pointed out two or three other watercraft with protesters aboard. Small green pennants identified them as part of what had been promoted as a "mass flotilla" of hundreds of boaters.
A spokesman insisted more boats were on their way from Antioch, Rio Vista and other areas in the Delta – and would arrive by evening.
"They just haven't gotten here yet," said Roger Salazar.
A trip down river to Courtland revealed fewer than two dozen other watercraft – amid all the water skiing and fishing boats – that were clearly linked to the event by signs and flags.
One motorboat pulled a small barge with a red farm tractor on board. Pear grower Tim Neuharth waved from beneath a sign that read "Delta Farmers, Sutter Island."
Sunday's event may have fallen short of the organizers' hopes for a show of force. But opposition leaders from the Delta made their message clear: They feel shut out from the planning process that has led to the canal proposal.
"The government process that brought us to this point has excluded stakeholders in the Delta," said Bruce Connelley, a city councilman from Oakley who coordinated the Million Boat Float.
Connelley and others are worried the Legislature will push through a package of contentious water bills without sufficient public debate. They call the canal plans a water grab by agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley.
An informational hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday before a joint session of Senate and Assembly water committees in Room 4202 of the state Capitol.
The proposed canal has been endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a task force he assembled to study the issue. The task force said a canal could help restore the Delta's strained environment.
The canal is a centerpiece of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which includes state and federal agencies, water users and environmental groups. Its goal is to obtain approval for the canal, and habitat protection projects, under the Endangered Species Act.
The group's steering committee, however, has no local government representatives. Its meetings are public, but its outreach has been limited.
Karla Nemeth, state liaison to the BDCP, said a number of community workshops are planned in the Delta this fall.
Connelley said Sunday the boating protest was meant "to wake up everybody." He still had hopes of seeing 200 or more boaters cruise upriver from Delta communities to Sacramento for an overnight stay.
Today, as state lawmakers reconvene after their summer recess, the boaters planned to take their protest to the Capitol steps.
The canal would divert a portion of the Sacramento River's flow directly to the Delta's state and federal water export pumps near Tracy.
Isolating fresh water in a canal would prevent the pumps from killing fish, and would protect the water from floods and earthquakes.
A canal also would end the need to maintain the Delta as a freshwater environment to serve water diverters. Biologists say the Delta should have more frequent pulses of salt water, an idea that worries Delta residents.
What's envisioned are actually two canals: a completely contained canal skirting one edge of the Delta, and a "through-Delta" canal assembled from existing levees running down the estuary.
Each canal would be enormous – at least 1,000 feet wide and 40 miles long – with potential environmental effects that remain unknown.
The project is similar to the ill-fated peripheral canal rejected by California voters in 1982. This time, the Schwarzenegger administration claims it doesn't need voter approval to build the canal, which is likely to cost $10 billion.#
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2114521.html?mi_rss=Top%20Stories
Lawmakers, back from recess, must act fast
S.F. Chronicle-8/17/09
By Wyatt Buchanan,Richard Procter
The California Legislature reconvenes today, after a three-week break following a bruising budget battle, to face some of the state's thorniest issues: water, prisons and spending.
In addition to the hundreds of bills, lawmakers will have to figure out what to do about the state's water crisis and how to trim $1.2 billion from prisons. Lawmakers approved cutting prison funds last month but put off identifying the cuts until this month.
Legislators will have only a short time to do this. The deadline for passing bills is Sept. 11, less than a month away. While that might seem ambitious, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), said lawmakers have already been working on some of these issues.
"Sometimes the perception with the budget is that every person is involved," said Bass, referring to last month's budget battle that ended with the adoption of a plan to eliminate a $24 billion deficit. "There are 120 legislators, and people are working on other areas."
One of those other areas is water distribution. Democrats recently introduced their water plan in five bills, including creating a seven-member board that would have broad authority over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which supplies water to about two-thirds of Californians. That board would also have the ability to approve a peripheral canal, a controversial plan to siphon river water before it enters the delta.
The proposal is likely to divide lawmakers from Northern and Southern California and to raise difficult questions about environmental protection and agriculture.
Another issue guaranteed to polarize the Legislature is state prisons. Lawmakers have to agree to how they will implement a budget cut of $1.2 billion, and they will have to respond to the order by a panel of three federal judges to reduce the state's prison population by 40,000 inmates over the next two years. While that order is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the court gave the state just 45 days to come up with a plan.
The Legislature was on the cusp of an agreement to reduce the prison population by 27,000 as part of last month's budget deal, but it fell apart after Republicans objected. Every day that goes by costs the state $3 million in savings not realized, or about $100 million a month, according to prison officials.
State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said both water and prisons are priorities, though they are not at the top of his list. That spot is held by the budget, as Steinberg wants to restore nearly half a billion dollars in line-item veto cuts made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before he signed the budget deal. Steinberg already has filed suit against the governor in San Francisco Superior Court over the cuts.
"We will take this fight to the legal system and fight the cuts in the Legislature on behalf of the people we represent and the notion that the executive and legislative branches of state government are co-equal," Steinberg said. He has suggested increasing taxes on cigarettes or placing a new tax on oil companies to make up the difference. But those proposals failed to pass the Legislature last month as part of the budget deal because Republicans object to any new taxes.
Maintaining the no-new-taxes stance is a major priority for Republicans as the legislative session goes into the final stretch, said Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo. Republicans also plan to focus on prisons, opposing any cost-cutting plan that involves early release of inmates, he said.
Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta (Riverside County), echoed Blakeslee on prisons and said he expected some Democrats to side with Republicans on the issue. He also said the current proposals on water did not satisfy him.
"We're seeing more of the same without delivering any more water to farmers in the Central Valley," he said.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/17/BA0H198P9S.DTL
State lawmakers shift focus to pressing water problems
The Desert Sun-8/17/09
By Samantha Young (AP)
With California mired in a third year of drought and thousands of farm acres lying fallow, lawmakers are turning their attention from the state's budget crisis to another issue that is equally as charged: state water policy.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers from both parties want sweeping reforms that would overhaul how the state manages its water supplies. The difficulty, as with solving California's continual fiscal crises, will be finding compromise.
While the nation's most populous state has been growing, a half century-old delivery system that stores snowmelt in dozens of reservoirs and funnels the water to farms and cities throughout the state is showing signs of stress.
The growing demands are wreaking havoc with the environment.
Water quality and conditions for fish have worsened in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, prompting federal restrictions on how much water can be pumped out of a region that serves as the hub of California's water-delivery network.
Even as problems grow more apparent with each year, state lawmakers have failed repeatedly to find common ground. Farmers, urban water districts, environmentalists, fishermen and others offer competing visions of what needs to be done.
“It's like trying to solve peace in the Middle East,” said Laura Harnish, a San Francisco-based water expert at the Environmental Defense Fund. “People are very wedded to their water rights.”
Lawmakers will return from their summer recess today with their party leaders and the governor saying they want a comprehensive solution that will ensure adequate water supplies while protecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Southern California water districts want to find a new way to funnel drinking water around the estuary, in part because of the court-imposed pumping restrictions and worsening water quality that becomes more expensive to treat.
The existing pumping system changes river flows in the delta and sucks fish in, killing them in large numbers. Water managers also are concerned about a breach in the 1,115 miles of earthen levees throughout the delta, which could disrupt water deliveries for months.
“Everybody understands if we don't act we will have disaster in the delta,” Department of Water Resources director Lester Snow said.#
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009908170314
Democratic water package at a glance
San Diego Union-Tribune-8/16/09
Democratic lawmakers in the state Legislature have proposed five bills intended to overhaul how the state manages its water supplies.
The drafts came after months of bipartisan meetings between the Assembly and Senate but omit key provisions desired by Republicans. Those include authorization for new dams and a bond to pay for various water improvements around the state.
Here are some proposals contained in the legislative package:
DELTA
– Creates a seven-member Delta Stewardship Council to oversee the ecosystem and water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and its tributaries.
– Mandates a management plan by the council that addresses whether to build a canal, dams and other water storage. The plan also must restore wildlife habitat, establish migratory corridors, restore delta river flows and improve water quality.
– Begins a study to determine whether the State Water Project, which runs the state's water-delivery system, should be run by another agency or utility instead of the California Department of Water Resources.
– Appoints a watermaster to direct the daily operations of all water diversions within the delta.
– Establishes a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy to advance environmental protection and assure prosperity for delta residents.
CONSERVATION
– Requires California to achieve a 20 percent reduction in per capita water use by 2020.
– Requires agricultural water suppliers to report how much they deliver to farms and implement efficient water-management practices.
– Establishes a groundwater monitoring program.
– Requires each region that depends on water from the delta to increase supplies through water efficiency, water recycling and regional coordination.
FUNDING
– Imposes an annual fee on each person or entity that holds a right, permit or license to divert water within the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. The money would be used to implement the delta plan.
– Requires those who receive water from the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project to pay for the environmental review, planning, construction and operation of any system to move water around the delta.
– Increases penalties for illegal diversions of water.#
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/16/ca-california-water-glance-081609/
Dan Walters: A new shot at settling Delta water war
Sacramento Bee-8/16/09
By Dan Walters
Opinion
Gov. Pat Brown's proudest achievement was California's historic water system, including Oroville Dam – the nation's highest – on the Feather River and the California Aqueduct that carries water south to San Joaquin Valley farms and millions of Southern California homes.
But that half-century-old system had a weak link – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into which Oroville's water flowed (via the Sacramento River) and out of which the aqueduct's immense pumps drew water for shipment southward.
The system worked well enough in the early stages when water shipments were relatively small. But as the aqueduct was completed and local water agencies began drawing their allotments, the pumping began to wreak environmental havoc on the Delta, including reversing natural stream flows and sucking fish into the pumps.
The answer was what was called a "peripheral canal" that would pull water out of the Sacramento River and deliver it to the aqueduct, bypassing the Delta.
Brown's son, Jerry, got the Legislature to authorize the peripheral canal, but it went for naught as an odd-bedfellows alliance of San Joaquin Valley farmers and environmental groups persuaded voters to reject it in 1982.
Succeeding governors either failed to resolve the deep-seated water conflicts or, in the case of Gray Davis, didn't even try. But, Davis' successor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, with characteristic optimism, has tried to make something happen – albeit with no more success than his predecessors.
Schwarzenegger wants to build some version of a peripheral canal and some new reservoirs to create more water-supply dependability. And the "alternate conveyance," as it's called now, has gained political traction, even among some environmentalists, because of the Delta's continued deterioration and a federal judge's restrictions on pumping that create severe shortages of agricultural water.
Although the Legislature has stalled on Schwarzenegger's water bond request, Democratic leaders have introduced their own skeletal water package that they say will be fleshed out in the final weeks of the legislative session.
"Twenty-five million Californians – two-thirds of our state – rely on the Delta for their water supply, so it is vital we ensure the Delta's reliability and quality," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said as the package was unveiled.
As it stands, the package is little more than a declaration of multiple goals, some of them mutually exclusive. One provision would create a "Delta Stewardship Council" to write a "Delta Plan," and authorize it to pass judgment on a new conveyance.
The water stalemate is a symbol of California's governmental dysfunction. The new water package could be a path to decision or just another of countless time-eating studies and debates that postpone hard decisions. Given the water war's tortured history, one shouldn't bet the farm, as it were, on its succeeding.#
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2113102.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20and%20California
Ending Delta denial
Santa Rosa Press Democrat-8/15/09
Editorial
For years, California lawmakers took a head-in-the-sand approach to dealing with the state’s volatile budget system. As a result of that inaction, Californians are now reeling from dramatic cuts in this year’s spending plan.
Unfortunately, this state of denial also has been the default for dealing with another crisis — the state of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Covering more than 700 square miles, the delta is the heart of California. It’s home to more the 130 species of fish, 750 species of plants and wildlife and 750,000 acres of farmland and wildlife habitat. Moreover, the delta provides a critical link for the state’s entire water system. Thanks to some creative engineering long ago, the estuary provides drinking water for 20 million Californians and irrigation for 4.5 million acres of farmland.
But that system is broken. The area is suffering from multiple issues related to population growth, climate change, overuse of water, poor land-use planning and drought.
Fish populations are in decline. Levees are in severe danger of failing. And water flows to the federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project, already at historic lows, are in danger of further reductions in order to protect fish.
State hearings will begin next week on a series of bills introduced to force the state to confront these issues. Among them is AB 39, authored by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-Petaluma, which would require an independent Delta Stewardship Council to develop and adopt a master plan, by 2011, for managing the delta’s problems. Among other things, the plan needs to include restoration of the delta’s ecosystem as well as improved reliability of the state’s water supply.
“The impacts to the delta estuary are undeniable and well documented,” Huffman said. “The need for change is obvious. The specific solution, however, is less clear.”
But here’s the problem. Critics have accused Huffman, chair of the state Water Parks and Wildlife committee, and other legislators of opening the door to another Peripheral Canal proposal.
Huffman vigorously denies the charge saying that nothing in AB 39 authorizes or supports a Peripheral Canal option.
At the same time, Huffman told The Press Democrat Editorial Board during a recent visit, “I’m not going to be battling it out defending the status quo,” he said. “The delta is obviously broken. ... I’m not going to take tools (to fix it) off the table.”
Wise move.
As Albert Einstein once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
California needs to do something different. It needs a new approach for dealing with many of its crushing issues, including the delta. The future of the delta ecosystem, the reliability of the state water supply and the health and safety of many state residents depend on it.#
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090815/OPINION/908149877
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