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Coverage wrap-up: Interior chief says Calif. water system outdated

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 16, 2009 at 8:23 am

From the Fresno Bee:

After the helicopter flyover, Salazar told reporters that California’s massive system of reservoirs, pumps and canals was outdated, built a half century ago and designed for a population half the size of today’s 37.7 million.

He pledged that the federal government was ready to help California overhaul its system and deal with its drought. “It is time to modernize, it is time to make hard choices, and it’s time for the federal government to re-engage in full partnership with the 21st century water system for the state of California,” he said.

The $260 million is part of $1 billion announced by the Bureau of Reclamation for water projects intended to create jobs across the West. California’s share will fund a host of projects, including new wells for farms and cities, temporary water lines to help feed orchards and grape vines year round, rock barriers intended to improve water quality in the delta and fish screens. An additional $135 million will be available to all states for grants for water recycling projects.

“By themselves, these investments cannot and will not solve all the problems we face, but they are a first step,” Salazar said during a news conference at Mather Field, a former Air Force base in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.

More from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

Salazar was noncommittal on the issue of the peripheral canal and more dams, according to Dan Bacher in a commentary posted at IndyBay.org:

“This is the third year of drought and this is a reminder to all of us that it is critical that we have to upgrade California’s aging water infrastructure,” said Schwarzenegger. “So we must do everything we can to have clean water, to have reliable water supply for the future. We must invest in our future and protect our precious resources. And it is critical that we fix the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem and that we provide water storage, above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage.”

However, Salazar was very noncommittal and vague when asked by a reporter where he stood on a peripheral canal and more dams. “You know, the reality of it is that there is a set of issues here that we need to work through in a way that recognizes the passion and the history that essentially brings farmers to fight for every single acre-foot of their water and municipalities to fight for their water, for environmentalists to fight for the endangered species issues which are so critical to them,” said Salazar.” So there’s a lot of passion about these issues.”

“But I do believe that there is enough at stake here and this drought that we are in, in California today, may be really the impeller, the impeller with the leadership of the Governor, with the leadership of the General Assembly, the Members of the House of Representatives, some of who are here today, others who are not, like Congressman Miller on the Senate side, or Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer, to really help us move with a way forward that will address.”

Salazar pointed out what he thought were three fundamental issues:

• First, how we deal with the issues of municipal water supplies so municipalities will have a reliable water supply;
• Secondly, how we address the issues of ecosystem restoration and take care of endangered species;
• Thirdly, how we address the realities of agriculture and the economics that come along with agriculture.

“So those issues are all on the table, they have been on the table for a very long time,” added Salazar. “But frankly, there has not been enough of an impetus, really, to get us to a successful global solution of those issues. And it’s my hope that with the leadership of the people here in California that the Department of Interior can play a helpful role — a helpful role — in helping us craft that plan for the future.”

More from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org by clicking here.

Michael Gardner of the San Diego Union Tribune covers Salazar’s comments about lifting ESA restrictions, as some Republican legislators have urged:

Afterward, Salazar pledged to work with state officials to develop a uniform approach to solving California’s difficult water issues, particularly how to restore the delta.

Legal actions to protect fish have diverted as much as 40 percent of the water that would normally flow through the delta to agriculture and cities in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. As a result, farms are fallow and laborers idle. That has prompted some Republicans to urge the president to convene a rarely used panel of administration officials – widely dubbed the “God Squad” – that has authority to override the Endangered Species Act and allow water to flow more freely.

“Without question, we have been devastated,” Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth said in a letter asking for the administration to intervene. Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, represents part of San Diego’s North County.

Responding to a question, Salazar yesterday said that setting aside safeguards would just be a “temporary fix.”

“That is not a solution here,” he said. “The solution we are looking for has to be comprehensive in nature.”

Salazar said he sympathizes with farmworkers, hundreds of whom are on a four-day march across the dusty Central Valley to draw attention to their plight. He added that renowned farm-labor activist Cesar Chavez “was a friend of mine.”

“I feel in my heart very much for those people who are being affected, the members of the United Farm Workers of America … I know the kind of suffering that they are currently undergoing,” Salazar said. “Our hope is some of the money we have made available today will help.”

Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

Representative Jim Costa expressed his disappointment in this article from the Merced Sun-Star:

But with double-digit Valley unemployment and federal irrigation deliveries slashed to zero south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, some still insist money won’t be enough. “Today’s announcement is very disappointing in that it does little to help our farmers and farm workers in the next six to twenty-four months, should we continue to experience ongoing dry circumstances,” said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.

Nine California lawmakers back legislation to exempt the region’s water projects from the Endangered Species Act. Some have urged Salazar to carve out exemptions on his own. Others have stoked public resentment.

In theory, the pressure could persuade regulators to loosen water restrictions designed to protect species like the delta smelt. But in practice, environmental laws and regulations have frequently proven impervious.

A federal committee dubbed the “God Squad,” which is empowered to override species protections, has done so only once in its 31-year history. Salazar indicated Wednesday he is unlikely to invoke it now. The Endangered Species Act itself has remained intact during the past 16 years of alternating Democratic and Republican rule.

Not least, congressional leaders support key environmental laws as they currently stand. “There are no silver bullets that will solve all of California’s water woes,” Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, declared in a recent written statement. “Suspending the federal Endangered Species Act certainly won’t do it.”

Much, much more on this angle from the Merced Sun-Star by clicking here.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged $260 million in federal stimulus money today to help California address its water shortages and aging infrastructure. The money is part of the $1 billion announced by the Bureau of Reclamation for water projects intended to create jobs across the West.

“In the midst of one of the deepest economic crises in our history, Californians have been saddled with a drought that is putting tens of thousands of people out of work and devastating entire communities,” Salazar said in a statement. “President Obama’s economic recovery plan will not only create jobs on basic water infrastructure projects, but it will help address both the short- and long-term water supply challenges the Golden State is facing.”

California’s share will fund a host of projects, including new groundwater wells, rock barriers intended to improve water quality in the delta, fish screens at Red Bluff Diversion dam and at the Contra Costa canal.

More from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here. (Note: Salazar then had a second press conference where he announced funding for earthquake monitoring, which you can read about in this related article from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.)

The San Francisco Chronicle gives a rundown of what we’re getting in that $260 million:

The Bay Area will benefit from the federal funds, including $20 million that will pay for fish screens on a canal that sends water from the delta to 550,000 residents of Contra Costa County.

Officials at the Contra Costa Water District, which operates the federally owned canal, said the money will mean all of its current intake canals will have the screens, which prevent fish such as chinook salmon and endangered delta smelt from being sucked into the water system. Installation of the screens will start this summer, said district spokeswoman Jennifer Allen.

“We’ll have an opportunity to move forward on a project that’s beneficial to our customers and that provides statewide benefits … for the fish populations,” Allen said.

Other projects include:

– $40 million to provide emergency drought relief by digging groundwater wells and improve water transfers and exchanges.

– $110 million to build a pumping plant at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam near Redding to protect fish while diverting water to irrigate 150,000 acres of farmland in the west Sacramento Valley.

– $30.8 million to repair water infrastructure at Folsom Dam east of Sacramento.

– $26 million to restore fisheries (salmon and steelhead) at Battle Creek near Redding.

– $4 million to help implement the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which seeks to restore the delta ecosystem while balancing the needs of 25 million Californians who rely on the delta for water.

More from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

April 16, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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