Good article on both sides of the major water issues from the Contra Costa County Times

Here’s a recommended read from the Contra Costa County Times on the current water issues. It does a good job of giving all sides of the equation:

California’s vexing water crisis is getting the attention it deserves. And that’s a good thing because, for the first time in a decade, the state’s water policy is about to be revamped — although this time not everyone will be a winner.

California’s water policy has rested for at least a decade on the conviction that all factions — be they Delta farmers, urban residents, corporate farmers, salmon fishers or the environment itself — could be served. It is now apparent that they can’t. Farmers could lose access to water. Anglers could lose sportfish. The water supply for a half-million Contra Costa residents might be threatened. Delta farmers could find a higher risk of flooding. And the tiny Delta smelt, a distinctively unsympathetic little fish, could pay the ultimate price — extinction.

The article outlines the specific situations facing the Delta today, and has this to say regarding the proposed dams:

In the governor’s view, much of the problem could be solved with more dams to store water in wet years for use in dry ones and to serve the growing population. His $5.9 billion plan features a pair of major new state reservoirs. But what the governor neglects to mention is that a lot of water storage capacity has been added in recent years.

Increasingly, water is being stored underground. And some water agencies are building their own reservoirs. The Contra Costa Water District completed Los Vaqueros Reservoir in 1997, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California finished Diamond Valley Reservoir a few years later. In both cases, the water districts committed money from their own ratepayers to build the dams themselves.

For urban water districts, it sometimes makes sense to undertake a project like a dam without a government subsidy if they can afford it. But that’s harder to do in sprawling agricultural districts, which helps explain why the strongest support for the governor’s plan comes from the San Joaquin Valley.

The article discusses the peripheral canal:

The original canal, which voters rejected in 1982, would have diverted Sacramento River water around the Delta to the pumps at Tracy, diverting fresh water away from the Delta and sending it more directly to the urban and agricultural systems across the state. Had it been built, the canal would have been large enough to carry the entire flow of the Sacramento River this summer. An alliance that included Northern Californians, environmentalists, anglers, Delta farmers and Contra Costa residents whose water comes straight out of the Delta defeated the plan.

The canal was seen as a Southern California water grab that would allow unfettered growth and continued inefficient use of water. It also threatened Delta water quality, which could have damaged Delta fisheries and the water supply for Contra Costa. But the idea has re-emerged. An influential study released in February by the Public Policy Institute of California and UC Davis researchers made a strong case that California should reconsider building a canal or something like it.

The best hope for restoring the Delta’s health, the study said, would be to take fresh drinking water upstream from the Delta. But the study assumed the Delta was historically a saltier environment, an assumption that has been contradicted by the Contra Costa Water District. And concerns linger that depriving the Delta of freshwater inflows from upstream could cause the estuary to fill up with polluted farm runoff and stagnate, jeopardizing fisheries and the Contra Costa Water District’s supply.

Delta farmers also worry the Delta levees will crumble as a result of neglect and poor funding when the state no longer depends on them to channel water to the pumps.

Still, evidence is growing that the Delta will not survive if nothing changes.

To read the full text of this comprehensive article from the Contra Costa County Times, click here. Recommended reading!

Comments

Admin

• Log in

Credits

Powered by Vertigo & WordPress
WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner