This is just one post in the Peripheral Canal Category

Suppliers seek approval for the “Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 1:15 pm

From the Antelope Valley Press:

Water suppliers in the state no longer call it a peripheral canal - but a proposed project to bring water from Northern California down south would serve the same purpose, a way to bypass the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Funding to kick off that plan, called the Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program, received the go-ahead from the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency board, with one proviso: Contractors whose shares of the State Water Project total at least 90% must commit to the $140 million study and design plans in order for AVEK to participate. That would keep AVEK’s cost at a maximum of nearly $2.7 million.

“If (at least) 90% of the entitlement doesn’t participate, we don’t want to be in it,” said AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller.

AVEK board members approved the plans in a 6-1 vote. Director George Lane cast the sole “no” vote. “It’s a good program,” Lane said. But, given the current economic crisis, he added, he felt compelled to vote against the funding proposal. “I don’t feel this is the right time to spend (about) $2.5 million of (Antelope Valley) taxpayers’ money,” Lane said.

The Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program is seen as part of a remedy for issues that the State Water Contractors face in trying to get water deliveries through the delta. Various environmental problems have plagued the delta, including a decline in the population of an indigenous species of fish called the delta smelt that die in the pumps that send water into the California Aqueduct, which carries water to this Valley and other Southern California communities.

December 1, 2008 · Filed Under Peripheral Canal