The Conversation: Plan is best hope to avert a dry future
Split over the Delta
Barry Nelson
Sacramento Bee
11/15/2009
On Nov. 4, the Legislature passed the most important water reform legislation in a quarter century. California has never been more in need of this historic change of direction.
The solutions in this package can best be evaluated in the context of the serious water- related challenges facing the state.
The Delta alone presents a Gordian knot of interconnected problems. Record diversions in recent years have pushed the most important estuary on the West Coast over the brink. Salmon populations have plummeted and forced the closure of the state's salmon fishery for two years running. Without prompt action, this quarter-billion-dollar industry could be lost forever. Agrowing list of Delta fish species are in danger of vanishing.
Without adequate fresh water and restored habitat, the damage could soon be irreversible.
The second major challenge facing the Delta is the prediction that a catastrophic failure is likely in the aging system of 1,100 miles of levees - with dire potential consequences for Delta farms and communities, water supplies, the state's economy and natural resources.
Statewide, our water supply faces an uncertain future. We have hit limits in the amount of water we can take from our rivers - including the Delta and its tributaries, and the Colorado, the Klamath, the Trinity and Mono Lake. Simply put, we are out of new rivers to tap.
In addition, climate change is expected to reduce water supplies as the state becomes drier. The traditional approach to providing more water - pumping more from the Delta and other rivers - will not work in the future.
In the face of these challenges, agencies and the Legislature have been gridlocked for years. CalFED, the previous state and federal effort to resolve these issues, is now largely seen as a failure. In the Delta, agencies have been playing a risky game of "blind men and the elephant." Dozens of state, federal, regional and local agencies with separate responsibility for water supply, ecosystem protection, land-use and flood management have been unable to develop a coherent approach to these linked problems.
Without real solutions, California's water wars have boiled over during the past three dry years. Today, the federal courts are increasingly the water managers of last resort. There are proposals in Congress to block legal protections for the Delta, which, if successful, could be the last straw for Delta fisheries and the salmon industry. The media wars have also heated up - with increasingly confrontational and often inaccurate stories. In short, California has been failing to find a path forward in its water policy.
Some have suggested that these problems are not solvable. In this context, the three major water reform bills provide a comprehensive package of workable solutions.
The "governance" bill creates a new Delta Stewardship Council, with the responsibility to coordinate existing agency efforts into a united strategy. For example: future landuse decisions should incorporate flood risks; ecosystem restoration should be coordinated with expanded floodways and strengthened levees; and water supply planning should ensure the water the Delta needs. The new council also will work to protect the Delta's legacy towns and agricultural heritage. A new Delta Conservancy will work with landowners to restore Delta habitat.Most importantly, the bill includes stronger legal environmental protections.
Far from greasing the skids for an old-fashioned peripheral canal, as some have suggested, the bill requires a comprehensive analysis of alternatives to a canal. It requires the State Water Board to determine how much water is needed to restore the Delta's health. It requires the existing flawed planning process, which has focused primarily on a traditional canal, to meet the state's highest standard for protecting natural resources.
The bill requires water exporters to pay for any new conveyance solution.
Given that a canal could cost more than $10 billion, this provides real pressure to consider alternative approaches and smaller facilities. Finally, for the first time, the bill includes a state policy of reducing reliance on the Delta - a dramatic change of direction after 40 years of steadily increasing pumping. The companion conservation bill shows how we can meet water needs while reducing reliance on the Delta.
