State must rescue delta from crisis
George Miller, Lois Wolk
San Francisco Chronicle
04/12/2009
California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of the Americas, is in crisis. Multiple species of fish are in rapid decline. First the delta smelt, and then the steelhead and salmon that once migrated through the estuary by the tens of thousands. Now, even the orcas that feed on the salmon are threatened. The dominoes are falling every day.
This crisis didn't happen overnight. It came after years of mismanagement by the federal and state water and wildlife agencies that ignored what the science was telling them and resisted new realities about climate change.
Fortunately, change in Washington is giving Californians new opportunities to rescue our delta from the failed policies of the past. With a new administration committed to sustainable energy and environmental policy, it is time to form a new state-federal-local partnership to save the delta.
We need this vital region - its ecosystem and its economy - to thrive. Working together, we can use new tools to meet our clean water needs, overhaul the responsible agencies, and implement a new management plan that is grounded in science - and gets results.
But first we must realize that there are no silver bullets that will solve all of California's water woes. Suspending the federal Endangered Species Act certainly won't do it. Nor will sprinting to commit billions of taxpayer dollars to dig a water supply ditch the size of the Panama Canal around the delta.
Our years in California water policy have taught us that you've got to put the right policies in place before you decide to build expensive and divisive water infrastructure.
Yet the state Department of Water Resources is now spending more than $1.1 billion on canal and water project planning - off budget, with no legislative oversight or public accountability - while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Cabinet has asserted that the state could break ground on a canal before the governor's term expires.
There are better answers, both short and long term, that have a greater chance to bring back our fisheries, deliver reliable clean water, and bolster, not threaten, the delta region, including its $35 billion economy with more than 200,000 jobs. These solutions include the region's communities as partners, not adversaries.
Immediately, we should expand proven and cost-effective water supply strategies such as conservation, recycling, groundwater cleanup, desalination, enhanced coordination between reservoirs, and regional water supply projects in Southern California and the Bay Area. President Obama's economic recovery package included a record $126 million for water reuse projects across the West: a good start, but only a drop in the bucket given the demands we face.
In the longer term, we believe that the delta needs a steward, an entity whose sole responsibility is the recovery and health of the delta. We propose a Delta Stewardship Council, which will include representation from different perspectives, all bound by a legal obligation to restore and protect the delta ecosystem. This would help resolve the confusion of 200 federal, state, and local agencies bumping into one another, often at cross purposes, while decision-makers' primary obligations are to outside interests with no responsibility for this critical estuary's survival.
The delta and its watershed also need funding, a conservancy like those California has established to preserve other natural treasures: the coast, the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe.
Much like the Florida Everglades, the delta is a vital economic and environmental resource - not just a plumbing fixture that two-thirds of the state relies upon for its water supply...
