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The most important water story of the year that didn’t run in Southern California

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 21, 2008 at 1:38 pm

… but it’s not for my lack of trying. When this story first ran, I sent it to every Los Angeles newspaper and a few other places, but nobody picked it up. This is my third time posting this article. From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa County Times (ran on 2/24/08):

During the Great Depression, the southern and central parts of the state cut a deal with the north: Let us build big pumps and canals to take your surplus water, and we’ll give it back when you need it. The time to deliver on that promise may be nearing — but coming through will be tough because California’s water supply is already threatened by climate change, a declining Delta ecosystem and a desiccating Colorado Basin.

The state agency responsible for doling out water rights, it turns out, has a massive backlog of pending applications for Delta water at the same time experts are coming to the conclusion that the system is already maxed out. This puts the state Water Resources Control Board in a difficult position: how to satisfy historic assurances for the north at a time when the amount of water available for other parts of the state is already being cut?

“Those (applications from the north) can change the equation pretty significantly,” Vicky Whitney, the water rights division chief for the State Water Resources Control Board, testified recently.

The pending applications, which total more than all of the Delta water delivered each year to Southern California, would, to the extent they are granted, take water directly from the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, Whitney told a task force formed to develop solutions to the Delta’s water supply and environmental problems.

California, Whitney said, “let permanent demand occur in geographic areas on borrowed water.

Yes, that permanent demand she is referring to is us, folks, sitting here in dry Southern California.

You see, the Delta Vision Task Force, charged with the near-impossible task of trying to decide how best to fix things, figured they’d better find out how much water is being requested from the Delta:

Members of the task force, who were becoming convinced that too much water was being promised from the Delta, wanted to know how much more water was being sought in the rivers and streams that ultimately drain to the estuary.

The number that came back was startling: 4.8 million acre-feet a year, a figure greater than the 4.1 million acre-feet under contract — but rarely delivered fully — from the sprawling State Water Project that serves 25 million people in Southern California and 750,000 acres of farms in Kern County. And that does not count an additional 3 million acre-feet to 5 million acre-feet being requested by the state on behalf of Northern California counties. Not all of those unfulfilled claims will prove legitimate.

But played out to its worst extreme, the situation could dry up Delta water supplies to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, regions that are highly dependent on Delta water delivered through the State Water Project and the smaller, federal Central Valley Project.

“I don’t get terribly panicky about this,” said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources, which manages the State Water Project. “This is something that will play out over a series of years. There will be time to adjust to this.”

I would say it’s a good bet Mr. Jerry Johns doesn’t live here in Southern California! Mr. Johns also had this to say:
Johns said it is incumbent on Southern California water agencies to develop more water supplies, conservation programs and other plans to make up for future losses on the Delta.

It is unknown how many of the pending applications will be granted. But the fact that the demands in the north are on a collision course with the rest of the state should not be a surprise because the North Coast rivers were put off limits to dams in the 1970s and 1980s when those rivers were designated wild and scenic.

“They’ve known that water supply wasn’t going to be there for about 25 years,” said John Herrick, manager of the South Delta Water Agency. “Nobody planned. That doesn’t mean the solution would be easy, but they’ve had 25 years.”

Further, the solution most often touted by some water agencies — an aqueduct to connect the Sacramento River directly with south Delta pumps — will not work if the underlying problem is an insufficient water supply, some critics contend.

“The early plans anticipated developing a lot more water,” said Greg Gartrell, assistant general manager of the Contra Costa Water District. “That never happened. The result is that the system has been squeezed to what appears to be a limit. A (peripheral canal) will not solve the lack of water.”

My take on this story: Some of these water rights applications will prove legitimate and will be granted, at least under currently-enacted county/watershed of origin laws. This means less water for Southern California. Theoretically, it could wipe out all the water coming towards Southern California from the State Water Project. This is a known condition, confirm both Whitney & Johns. Johns goes further, saying that we’ll have the years ahead to adjust to it, and that Southern California needs to start preparing by finding new supplies and implementing conservation & reclamation programs.

But before you go pointing at that big blue ocean out there, consider the fact that the Poseidon desalination plant, proposed for Carlsbad, will be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, supplying water for 300,000 homes. At last count in 2000, there were nearly 10 million people living in Los Angeles County alone. That doesn’t count San Diego, Orange, or Riverside County. And it’s definitely not including future demand, as Southern California continues to be one of the fastest growing regions in the state.

Recommended reading! Get the rest of this story (before the link expires) from the Contra Costa County Times by clicking here.

April 21, 2008 · Filed Under Water Rights

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