Delta Vision task force to meet today, peripheral canal on the agenda

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A state advisory panel is expected this week to rekindle debate over one of the hottest political issues in state history – a peripheral canal to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta largely for use in Southern California.

After nearly a year of study, the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force will hold its last two meetings beginning Thursday in Sacramento in hopes of reaching consensus on how to resolve the long-standing conflict in the delta: protecting a delicate ecosystem while providing water to millions of urban users across the state, including parts of the Bay Area.

Although the panel, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will offer a long list of recommendations, water and resource experts said Wednesday they expected the panel to vote by Friday to build a new system to deliver delta water to urban users that is physically separate from the delta itself – a system like the peripheral canal that California voters rejected 25 years ago.

A peripheral canal, or some sort of variation thereof, is certainly on the agenda. Bitterly fought over in 1982, many feel that much has changed in California since then, and the time may now be right for such a peripheral-type canal. But not all see the peripheral canal as the main solution:

State Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden (San Joaquin County), a long-time Central Valley farmer, said he believes the most critical issue isn’t necessarily how water is moved but how the whole delta is managed. “The challenge is the governance issue – who is going to take control,” he said, adding that today there are more than 200 federal, state and local agencies that share some responsibility over delta activities.

“We all know the risks and what the fixes are,” he said. “We cannot continue to take the amount of water we are taking and still have a healthy delta. The question is who is going to enforce the laws we already have.”

To read the rest of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, click here. Click here for coverage of this story from Inside the Bay Area.

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