Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 20, 2009
1. Top Items–
Water Compromise Elusive in Calif. Debate Over 'Broken' Ecosystem
The New York Times
It's farmers vs. fish for California water;
U.S. urged to lift restrictions
The Washington Times
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Water Compromise Elusive in Calif. Debate Over 'Broken' Ecosystem
The New York Times – 8/19/09
By Colin Sullivan, Greenwire
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem is busted.
That view prevails on all sides of a raging fight over the delta’s coveted water supply. Whether an environmentalist, commercial fisher, farmer, bureaucrat, academic or politician – all of whom were invited yesterday to a major hearing in the state Legislature – all seemed to agree that the delta had fallen apart.
"Anyone who believes the status quo is working doesn't understand what's going on," said Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources. "The system is broken."
"The delta has gone to hell in a handbasket," added Sen. Joe Simitian, Democrat from Palo Alto.
The delta, which draws water from the Sierra Nevada, is at the center of an economic firestorm in a state whose output of goods and services rivals that of Germany or France. But without water, California has no crops, no fish, no manufacturing. And without all three, the state's economy falls off a cliff.
The region is so crucial because it provides two-thirds of the state's water supply. Its massive pumping system routes water to cities and farmers alike, but the pumps have drained the delta region and become a kind of killing machine for endangered salmon and smelt. Add to those concerns the likelihood of increased salinity as sea levels rise due to climate change, diminished snowpack in the Sierra and the possibility of a major earthquake destroying the delta's maze of 1,100 levees, and you get a perfect storm that could dwarf Hurricane Katrina as a natural disaster.
The consensus at yesterday's hearing was clear. Marin County Democrat Jared Huffman, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, summed up the prevailing view when he said environmental damage in the delta's estuary has surpassed the Chesapeake Bay and the Everglades, making it the site with the most urgent U.S. environmental restoration effort.
So what's to be done? For now, Democrats in the Legislature have introduced a package of five bills they would like to move by the end of the year. The measures build on the work of a group called the Delta Vision Blue-Ribbon Task Force, which spent the last two years digging through layers of competing interests to devise its plan.
But even the chairman of that task force, Phil Isenberg, seems less than thrilled about the plan that may result. He testified before the daylong joint Assembly-Senate hearing, offering a bit of sage advice to the lawmakers looking to push the package through over the last 25 days of this year's legislative session.
"If you manage to do nothing at all this year, a lot of people will be mad at you," Isenberg said. "And if you do something significant, a lot of people will be mad at you."
The plan
On one side of the fight are farmers who want to eliminate the Endangered Species Act's pumping restrictions. On the other are environmentalists who want to restore the delta's water flows and encourage strict conservation. In the middle are commercial fishers, recreation advocates, urban water users and water districts.
To Simitian, all sides risk toppling the state's economy by not compromising. That is why he is pushing a bill that would establish a seven-member council that would be tasked with putting the state's interest above those of individual parties.
Noting that polls give lawmakers here an 11 percent approval rating, Simitian is placing a bet that a council with four members appointed by the governor, one by the Assembly and one by the Senate, and an expert chairman at the helm, might be able to unite the 200-odd agencies that run the water system.
A council placed above local or constituent interest, he argued, might be able to implement the Delta Vision's entire set of recommendations, which range from earmarking land for restoration and building new storage facilities to mandating recycling programs.
Voters, he said, "are not convinced we can actually solve the problems that affect their daily lives. I would like to prove them wrong."
"No one is really in charge," added Huffman, who voiced his support for a new governance structure. "California can't afford to continue this disarray."
Another proposal in the package of five would codify a proposal from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to establish a 20 percent conservation mandate for urban water users. Water districts would not be eligible for state loans or grants if they do not comply. Another would require groundwater reporting.
But critics have slammed the special council as a new layer of bureaucracy that would duplicate work at other agencies and repeat mistakes of the past, among them the failed Cal-Fed federal-state partnership formed in 1994 (Greenwire, Sept. 17, 2008).
Sen. Tom Berryhill, a Republican from the Central Valley, compared the effort to the California Coastal Commission, which in some quarters is viewed as an activist agency that sets its own agenda. And Snow, the state water department director and a respected veteran in the field, said he fears the council would add red tape at a crucial time.
"The bills appear to establish additional obstacles, which may in fact delay and not expedite some of the actions that we need," Snow told lawmakers.
Greg Gartrell, Contra Costa Water District assistant general manager, agreed with Snow. "It could set up a system that adds more layers of bureaucracy and opportunities to say no," he said. "It is not easy getting a permit to do anything."
Schwarzenegger pushes back
With Snow as its lead voice on the matter, the Schwarzenegger administration came out swinging yesterday.
The governor sent a letter to Democratic leaders that was largely critical of the water package, while Snow reiterated the administration's position that nothing will be solved without new infrastructure.
In his letter, Schwarzenegger applauded the attempt at consensus building, but he said the package fails to directly address construction of new dams and reservoirs or how to fund them. Snow repeated this argument and said the governor would reject any reform package that fails to include a water bond.
"It has to have a bond as part of this package," Snow testified. "It's not acceptable to put these programs out and not have a method for funding."
An attempt by Schwarzenegger, with the support of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), to push a $9 billion bond onto the state ballot fell short last year, but the governor appears to believe the year-end push represents a second chance (E&ENews PM, Aug. 18).
Snow urged revisions to the package, adding provisions for statewide conservation, regional investment, increased statewide storage and bond funding. "The package is not complete and does not address some of the issues that are most important," Snow said.
The administration has also been pushing for construction of a peripheral canal around the delta, to avoid having to pump it through, or looking at an "all tunnel" option that could lead to a 50-mile tunnel under the region.
Don Koch, director of the California Department of Fish and Game, told lawmakers that the package as written is a "Band-Aid" that fails to address the age of the system, much of which was built in the mid-20th century.
"Without dealing with infrastructure, we're not going to deal with water supply," Koch said.
Isenberg's certainty
Isenberg, the task force chairman and a former mayor of Sacramento and member of the Assembly, said the Legislature was wading into a "water ecosystem puzzle" that nobody had cracked in decades of policy debate. He empathized openly with the difficulty of the challenge, citing voter ambivalence and ignorance as key factors for inaction.
"They will go on as long as we live, these debates," Isenberg said. "We're not yet very serious about conservation. ... It is a statewide problem."
Still, Isenberg urged direct alterations to the package. He told lawmakers to mark specific acreage for restoration to give agencies a conservation goal. He threw his support behind the governor's bond proposal. And he said expedited environmental processing is badly needed.
"I understand how controversial [that is], but you have to take actions as rapidly as possible," Isenberg said.
Others at the hearing expressed a range of views.
Jeffrey Mount, a professor at the University of California, Davis, said the blogosphere and media have wrongly focused the debate on the peripheral canal when rebuilding the levee system is far more important. Kim Delfino, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife, called the Democrats' package a solid framework to build upon. And Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, scolded lawmakers and citizens alike for treating the delta like a giant reservoir available for their personal consumption.
"Right now, it's on the verge of ecological collapse, and we're about to turn it into an inland sea," Grader said, noting the many differences between an estuary, which needs flow-through, and a static reservoir. "I don't think you can look at draining it any more than you can look at draining Lake Tahoe." #
It's farmers vs. fish for California water;
U.S. urged to lift restrictions
The Washington Times – 8/20/09
By Valerie Richardson
Supporters of California agriculture called on the Obama administration and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to lift water restrictions that were imposed to protect the endangered delta smelt, saying the fish is putting farmers out of business.
The Pacific Legal Foundation presented a "Save Our Water" petition with 12,000 signatures at a Sacramento news conference, calling on Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to request that the Obama administration convene the federal Endangered Species Committee, also known as the "God Squad," to remove the water curbs.
"California should be known for the Rose Bowl, not a dust bowl. But there's a danger of a dust bowl being created in the Central Valley by extreme [Endangered Species Act] regulations," said foundation President Rob Rivett. "Instead of stimulating jobs, federal environmental officials are turning recession into depression and stimulating economic hardship for businesses, farms and families."
State Rep. George Radanovich, a Republican from the hard-hit San Joaquin Valley, said that"when it comes to water policy, humans come before fish."
The God Squad is a rarely invoked but potentially powerful provision within the Endangered Species Act that lets the committee override species protections in cases of economic emergency.
During a trip to the Central Valley in June, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar appeared to reject the idea.
Convening the committee, Mr. Salazar said, "would be to admit failure, it would defeat ecosystem restoration efforts. It has been rarely invoked and usually leads to litigation," according to Aquafornia.com, a Web site on the state's water issues.
As a result, proponents of emergency action are urging Mr. Schwarzenegger to throw his clout behind the idea and make the request to the Interior Department on behalf of the state.
Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said the governor had sent requests for reconsultation on the smelt and chinook salmon to the Interior and Commerce departments.
"The governor would look at the God Squad as indication that the federal government isn't responding. It's an action of last resort," Mr. Snow said. "It rarely works the way anyone wants it to. What the governor wants is a strong federal partner."
Nobody doubts the economic devastation to the Central Valley. The unemployment rate in agriculture communities ranges from 20 percent to 40 percent, while 250,000 acres of farmland are lying fallow or dying. The region's agricultural output is expected to decline by between $1 billion and $3 billion this year over last, according to estimates by agricultural and business groups.
Whether the delta smelt is to blame lies at the heart of the debate. While some blame the fish for the severe reductions in pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, others argue that the region's three-year drought is primarily to blame.
Some environmentalists say the agriculture industry needs to adapt to the reduced water supply and live within its means.
"Big Ag must now learn to do more with less," campaigner Brian Smith wrote on Earthjustice.org. "The days of copious taxpayer-subsidized water exports from the Delta are coming to an end. And the idea of killing off numerous native fish species, decimating Northern California fishing communities and turning the Delta into a fetid swamp is simply not allowed under federal law."
The situation for farmers is likely to get worse before it gets better. Federal regulators are poised to enact more water restrictions to protect the chinook salmon, the steelhead and other fish. Estimates are that the cutbacks could result in the removal of 500,000 acre-feet of water.
Scaling back the Central Valley agriculture industry, also known as America's fruit basket, would have an economic impact that stretches beyond California. Americans undoubtedly would find themselves buying more fruits, vegetables and nuts from foreign sources, Mr. Rivett said.
"It's certainly going to impact our food security. We know our farmers here produce a product that's safe and healthy; we don't know what will happen if we're importing those products," he said.
Others supporting the "Save Our Water" petition include the California Chamber of Commerce, which urged state and federal officials to protect agricultural water supplies "from measures that will inflict serious economic and social harm on millions of Californians."
In May, the foundation filed a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of several Central Valley farmers challenging the agency's authority to issue regulations on behalf of the delta smelt. #
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