Governor declares California drought emergency
Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
02/27/2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency Friday, urging cities to cut water use 20 percent and paving the way for projects such as desalination plants and water recycling projects to bypass standard environmental reviews.
Despite heavy rainstorms this month, state officials say California's water supply remains critically low in the midst of a third dry winter, restrictions on water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and a population that has grown by 9 million since the last drought in 1991.
In making the declaration, Schwarzenegger said the state must prepare for several more years with little rain. Experts predict this year's runoff - the critical spring meltwater from Sierra Nevada snow - will be 57 percent of normal.
"This drought is having a devastating impact on our people, our communities, our economy and our environment - making today's action absolutely necessary," Schwarzenegger said.
The governor's proclamation stopped short of invoking mandatory statewide rationing, but officials said that option - which would be a first in California history - is available if other tactics fail.
"No Californian can use water as though we have an unlimited amount, period," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
A sweeping declaration Currently about two dozen water agencies in the state, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, have invoked water rationing in order to protect dwindling reservoirs. The governor declared a drought emergency last year, but Friday's announcement outlined more sweeping efforts to stem the crisis.
In addition to conservation, the governor called on state agencies to expedite water transfers, study emergency connections between water systems, and streamline the process for approving projects for drought relief and increased water supply.
Those could include facilities that turn seawater into drinking water - controversial technology that environmentalists say requires tremendous amounts of energy and potentially harms marine ecosystems.
It's very disturbing because the state has a record of building large projects that provide water for the short term, but don't look to the long term," said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the watchdog group California Coastkeeper Alliance.
California's aging water system has come under increased scrutiny in the last several years following the collapse of several important fish species, including the delta smelt, a tiny fish exclusive to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The hub of the state's water system, the delta has become an increasingly inhospitable place for the fish, prompting a series of environmental orders that slashed the amount of water funneled out by giant state and federal systems that send water to two-thirds of California.
Hard-hit farmers Farmers, who use the lion's share of the state's available water supply, are among the hardest hit by the pumping reductions and dry weather.
In a separate announcement Friday, a state board that issues permits for drawing water directly from creeks and streams said that even "senior" water rights holders - those whose water rights date back as far the Gold Rush era - may not exercise their rights this year.
Many senior water rights holders are farmers whose businesses have passed from generation to generation. The last time the state banned water diverted from streams came during the late 1970s drought.
After plowing under withered plants last year, many farmers this year elected to fallow their land. State agricultural leaders fear the repercussions of the projected 80,000 lost farm jobs and billions in lost produce. Schwarzenegger's action Friday provides financial aid to laid off farm workers.
Like the governor, who introduced a $9 billion water bond last year, many in the farming industry favor building new dams and a peripheral canal that carry water around the delta to growers and ranchers in the Central Valley.
State voters rejected a peripheral canal in 1982.
Call for long-term plan The Legislature should follow the governor's lead "with a comprehensive, long-term plan that includes new surface water storage facilities and improved water delivery systems as essential strategies, along with water recycling and others," said Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
But environmentalists, who point out that urban, not rural, communities are being asked to conserve, worry that proponents of large-scale storage and canal projects are using the drought to further their agenda.
"There are opportunities in crisis," said Laura Harnish, regional director of Environmental Defense Fund. "We have a chance to scale back within our means and use water more wisely. On the heels of the budget woes in California, it seems an inopportune time to introduce multi-billion dollar bond measures that haven't proven they'll solve the problem."
Emergency declaration Gov. Schwarzenegger's declaration of a statewide drought emergency Friday called for the following:
-- Urban water users cut water use by 20 percent.
-- Department of Water Resources expedite water transfers between agencies, offer water management assistance to agriculture industry.
-- Labor and Workforce Development Agency to offer job training and financial aid to unemployed workers primarily in agricultural areas...
