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Thomas Elias: Sensible water ideas are bubbling up

Posted by: Maven on May 12, 2009 at 8:39 am

From Redding’s Searchlight Record, columnist Thomas Elias says our water problems could potentially be worse than our budget process, but sees hope on the horizon with the Delta Vision process – and a lawsuit:

How to revive the delta environment and still meet urban and farm water needs from Oakland to San Diego is the focus of the independent, governor-appointed Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force, which has now developed what looks like the best plan yet for solving the water crisis:

Increase use of recycled water for lawns and industry, the task force suggests, while building more desalination plants to make ocean waters drinkable. Add infrastructure like new reservoirs and possibly a peripheral canal bringing water around the delta in a concrete channel that would allow control of runoff to the sea. And police water rights permits more tightly, making sure farmers do not use more than they’re entitled to take.

There also may be some merit to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento near the end of last year. This action demands the long-term fallowing of many thousands of acres in the western San Joaquin Valley that are so tainted with toxic selenium, mercury and boron that farming them causes the chemicals to drain back into the San Joaquin River and then into the delta.

The lawsuit contends that since 80 percent of California’s surface water is used by agriculture, all urban shortages could quickly be resolved by holding the polluted farmland out of production until it can be cleaned up – something that’s not in the immediate offing.

Read the full text of Thomas Elias’ column in the Record Searchlight by clicking here.

May 12, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Issues

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