Legislature to Consider Big Water Package After August Recess

Legislature To Consider Big Water Package After August Recess

by Steve Evans, Conservation Director, Friends of the River.

A Peripheral Canal may or may not be included in a package of water bills that the Legislature expects to take up after their August recess. The water package will likely address Delta governance and ecosystem restoration, as well as water conservation.

Capitol insiders are not saying whether the bill package will expressly authorize a giant Peripheral Canal to divert massive quantities of fresh Sacramento River water around the beleaguered estuary for export to the southern Central Valley and southern California.

The water package will also likely include some kind of appointed water council or water master to manage water operations in the Delta. In addition, the package will attempt to implement the Governor’s call for a 20% reduction in water use in the state. Whether this will include conservation mandates for agriculture, which uses 80% of California’s developed water, remains to be seen.

It is also unknown whether this initial water package will include funding mechanisms, either in the form of a proposed general obligation bond (essentially borrowing money in the name of the taxpayers) and/or water fees. The cost of a Peripheral Canal could be at least $10 billion and new or enlarged dams needed to supply water to the canal would be billions more. Billions are also needed for ecosystem restoration in the Delta and upstream watersheds.

Whatever the Legislature’s Democratic majority intends to do about water, you can be sure that the Republican caucus will withhold any support unless the package includes authorization and funding for new or enlarged dams. Dams on the Republican’s “must do” list include the enlargement of that Shasta Dam (which would drown the last remaining homeland of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe on the McCloud River), the Sites Reservoir (which would divert water from the Sacramento River), and the Temperance Flat Dam (which would drown the scenic San Joaquin River Gorge).

Even if the water package doesn’t explicitly authorize construction of the controversial Peripheral Canal, it is certainly intended to enable its construction. The canal was rejected by voters in a statewide referendum in 1982. Since then, many native fish species in the Delta have declined towards extinction and water quality in the estuary has suffered from the lack of fresh water flows. Water exports through the Delta have more than tripled over the last 50 years.

Southern California developers and southern Central Valley agribusiness are pushing for a canal as wide and as long as the Panama Canal, that can divert more water than the average flow of the Sacramento River. Some Legislators and even some misguided conservation organizations believe that a canal or some other form of “conveyance” could actually benefit the Delta ecosystem and its endangered fish species. But the government’s track record in operating water projects in compliance with state and federal environmental laws is less than stellar and there is no reason to assume that the canal will be operated differently.

There are serious questions about the assumption that a Peripheral Canal, or some other kind of new conveyance system, will benefit the Delta’s ecosystem, fisheries, water quality, and agriculture. The Public Policy Institute of California determined that there is only a 50% likelihood that the Sacramento River salmon population, which is the mainstay of the commercial salmon fishing industry in California and southern Oregon, will remain viable with a Peripheral Canal. The same report found only a 40% likelihood that the Delta smelt would remain viable with a canal.

A recent science evaluation of the draft Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, which is closely tied to the canal proposal, found that the benefits of Delta habitat restoration may be off-set by the negative impacts of the Peripheral Canal diversion on Sacramento River salmon. The same report indicated that the canal would do little to improve south Delta water quality or the survival of San Joaquin River salmon population.

Friends of the River, and its commercial and sport fishing allies, are working with Delta communities and farmers to ensure protections for the Delta in whatever water package that may emerge from the Legislature. Recently, we helped mobilize Delta farmers and Legislators, anglers, and the concerned public at a rally for the Delta held on the Capitol steps in early July.

Friends of the River is also pushing hard for a top to bottom revamp of water rights in California. One of the underlying problems with the seemingly intractable water issue is the fact that California has granted rights to considerably more water than is normally available in any one year. That sets up a permanent but artificial state of demand outstripping supply.

Redetermining the highest beneficial use for all existing water supplies, coupled with significant efforts to encourage regional self-sufficiency through water conservation, recycling/reclamation, and improved groundwater management, will go a long way towards solving the problem. The fact is that California has a water management problem, not necessarily a water supply problem. Look for alerts concerning this important issue when the Legislature reconvenes or visit http://www.friendsoftheriver.org for the latest information.