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Delta Vision: North State will ‘take a hit’ to save the estuary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 7, 2008 at 5:44 am

From the Chico News & Review:

More of Northern California’s water is going south. Before you get angry about lawns in Torrance and swimming pools in Beverly Hills, you should know that the increase is meant to help save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is in danger of dying.

That was the principal message of a water forum held last Friday (May 30) at the Chico Masonic Family Center. Its purpose was to examine a proposed “Delta Vision” developed by a blue-ribbon task force convened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

California has the most elaborate and complex water-transfer system in human history, one that conveys hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the rivers and streams of Northern California more than 500 miles—and up and over a mountain range—to the population centers of Southern California. It’s a marvel of technology and construction—with one glaring weakness.

It passes through the Delta.

The Delta, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet and flow into San Francisco Bay, is one of North America’s greatest and most important estuaries. It is home to more than 500 species, and its ecological health is critical to an incalculable number of fish, animals and birds.

Unfortunately, it is also the hub of the state’s two principal water distribution systems, the federal Central Valley Project, which includes Shasta Dam, and the State Water Project, which includes Oroville Dam. Water enters the northern part of the Delta via the Sacramento River and is pulled out of it by huge pumps at the southern part, near Tracy.

The process wreaks all kinds of damage on the Delta’s ecology, especially when water inflows are low, as they have been in recent years. The pumps not only suck in saline water from San Francisco Bay, upsetting the freshwater ecology of the Delta, but they also kill fish by the millions, especially the endangered Delta smelt.

On the other hand, there are at least 7,000 permitted diverters who use the water that is transferred south, including the water agencies that provide household water to some 23 million people and farmers who irrigate 7 million acres of productive agricultural lands.

The forum discussed the Delta Vision process, which is tackling such issues as climate change, earthquake risks, levees and conservation in the quest to solve the Delta’s problems:

A number of remedies have been proposed, but all include the notion that more inflow will be needed if the Delta is to remain healthy. And that water can come from only one place: Northern California. Naturally, that was much on the minds of the 70 people who attended the Northern Sacramento Valley Water Forum Friday. But North Staters aren’t the only ones who will have to sacrifice, speakers said.

Every Californian will “take a hit,” as Thad Bettner, general manager of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, put it. Delta Vision could be applied throughout the state, so it would spell conservation and possibly even higher water prices for all Californians—even those in the north who have the water.

“This is not just a Southern California problem,” Bettner said. Part of GCID’s vision is to provide additional water to the Delta. “There is no way to say no,” so Northern Californians, farmers (who tap more than 80 percent of California’s water supply) in particular, will have to “change the way we do business and better manage our water.”

Read the full text of this article from the Chico News & Review by clicking here.

June 7, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues

Comments

One Response to “Delta Vision: North State will ‘take a hit’ to save the estuary”

The Trout Undergroundd on June 7th, 2008 7:17 am

Puuuleeeaze — the Delta wouldn’t need more inflows from Northern California sources is less of it was being sucked out the back door and sent south to irrigate semi-arid land.

Last I heard, 70% of the water sent south to residential use is “invested” on landscaping and swimming pools, which suggests there’s room for sacrifice in the southern end of the state before we start sacrificing NorCal’s rivers to new dams and its wildlife to damaging flow regimes.

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