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Westlands District farmers negotiating sweet water deal (edited)

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2007 at 4:30 pm

Here’s an interesting article from the San Jose Mercury News about the negotiations going on between the Westlands Irrigation District and federal regulators that involves settlement of a lawsuit filed by the district against the federal government. The feds are trying to make a deal to settle the lawsuit, one that could involves millions of gallons of water with priority rights. Here’s the story from the San Jose Mercury News:

The U.S. government appears poised to turn over the rights to billions of gallons of water to a politically connected group of farmers, even as residents across the West are being asked let their lawns go brown and adopt other emergency measures to conserve water.

Under a proposed settlement federal regulators are likely to present Wednesday in Washington, landowners in the Westlands Water District would gain the rights to 1 million acre feet of water, or 15 percent of the federally controlled water in California. That would make it the largest grant to irrigators since the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was created in 1903, agency officials said.

If drought-like conditions persist, the deal would guarantee the farmers’ irrigation pumps will flow, even if that means some cities in the San Francisco Bay area will get less drinking water. That prospect has alarmed environmentalists and others seeking to preserve the state’s water supply for cities and an estuary inhabited by an imperiled species of fish.

“This new proposal appears to increase the opportunity for water diversions to the biggest farms of all,” said Hal Candee, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council who is participating in the negotiations. “Can a proposal that appears to put a small group of farm operations ahead of the taxpayers and our fish and wildlife resources be justified because it may help one federal agency deal with a specific drainage problem?”

To read the full text of this article from the San Jose Mercury News, click here.

It is important to point out that, according to the DWR, 80% of developed water goes to agricultural uses. The California Farm Water Coalition puts this percentage at 43% agricultural and 46% for the environment.

Here is more on this from Indybay.org:

Last Friday, the Planning and Conservation League released an action alert regarding a draft memorandum of understanding between the Westlands Water District and the Bureau of Reclamation. The “idea” behind this proposal, according to its negotiators, is to find a way to clean up lands that have been contaminated by improper drainage, resulting from the government’s failure to follow through on installing an agricultural drain as promised with the Central Valley Water Project. Because a significant portion of Delta fresh water is exported to the Westlands Water District and other San Luis Reservoir Contractors, Restore the Delta agrees with PCL’s alarm over a number of items covered in this memorandum of understanding.

In this proposal:

The State would reassign Westlands Water District a direct water right (No. 12860) for 1 million acre feet of water; (Water that Restore the Delta maintains should remain within the Delta.)

The Bureau would grant Westlands Water District and other San Luis Contractors the title to and operational control of the San Luis Reservoir in coordination with DWR; Transferring a public asset to a small group of special interests to work hand-in-hand with a state agency that has failed grossly to protect the California Delta.

The United States would forgive the Westlands and other San Luis Contractors of their Central Valley Project capitol debt, and; (Gifting public property to a small group of special interests.)

Westlands Water District and other San Luis Contractors would assume responsibility for the drainage obligation. (The Federal Government has failed to meet this obligation. What assurances and recourse would citizens have if this obligation continues to not be met?)

The letter below asks Senator Dianne Feinstein to reject this fatally flawed proposal because it inappropriately transfers public assets to a small group of special interests and undermines water supply reliability, water quality, and habitat conditions in the Bay-Delta ecosystem and its watershed. We are asking her to, instead, consider an alternative drainage solution that would include more extensive retirement of drainage impaired lands, enhanced water supply reliability for California, and dedicated water resources for Bay-Delta needs.

To read this article from IndyBay.org, click here.

Here’s an article that was posted last month on an online website called Estuary, that explains more:

The latest chapter in the long-running effort to solve drainage issues in the San Luis Unit has the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation considering handing over ownership of a large section of the Central Valley Project to farmers and water districts.

A 20-page proposal, “Concepts for Collaboration Drainage Resolution,” proposed by Westlands, suggests that Westlands and other water districts on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley assume responsibility for developing a way to collect and dispose of the salty, selenium- laced water that drains off the land after irrigation. In exchange, Westlands would receive less water-1 million acre-feet instead of 1.4 million acre-feet per year. Westlands would be assigned a permit for a water right instead of a contract-the water right would no longer need review and renewal every 25 years unlike the water contract.

This change from a contract to a water right is one issue that concerns many CVP watchdogs. The California Water Impact Network’s Tom Stokely says that by attaining a water right-vs. a contract-Westlands and the other San Luis water districts don’t face the prospect of having deliveries of water cut to as little as zero-as agricultural service contractors do-in the event of a bad drought. In other words, says Stokely, they’re becoming exchange contractors with higher water rights-and that poses a big problem for the Delta. “If [Westlands] gets a water right, are they then not responsible for Delta water quality?” asks Stokely.

To read the full text of the article from Estuary, click here.

And I thought it was a slow water news day ….!!

July 31, 2007 · Filed Under Agriculture, Central Valley Project, Conservation, Westlands Water District

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