As fish, farmers fight for water, reservoirs must be built 

Capital Press Editorial

June 8, 2007

California 's precarious water supply is being squeezed as fish and farmers gasp for each precious drop.

The pumps at the Harvey O. Banks facility in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River delta were silenced last week to protect the threatened fish, the delta smelt.

This shutdown is expected to be only temporary to address the immediate problem of too many of the small fish near the pumping stations. The fear is they may get sucked into the pumps and killed - as hundreds did from May 24 until the pumps were shut down May 31.

Don Strickland, a spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, said once the water in the delta warms up, the fish will move closer to the bay and the western part of the delta.

It's common that pumping is reduced during this time of year when the smelt move near and past the pumping station from their spawning grounds in the Sacramento River .

When the pumps roar back to life, farmers and thirsty Southern Californians which rely on water pumped out of the Banks' pumps will rejoice.

But the risk remains that the pumps could be silenced again as part of a lawsuit against the Department of Water Resources. The lawsuit seeks to shut down the Banks facility pumps if the Department of Water Resources doesn't comply with the state Endangered Species Act to get a permit for the fish killed in the station's pumps.

"We believe that shutting off the pumps is a disaster," said Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, which gets water drawn from the Banks station. Kern County Water Agency supplies irrigation for 700,000 acres of land and 125,000 residential users.

In the short term, the state's complex and diverse water supply system can absorb a temporary shutdown of the Banks facility. Fortunately, 2006 was a good water year for California , because 2007 has not been good. However, by drawing on groundwater and other reservoirs now, that could mean those sources will have less water, or no water, available later in the year.

The aging State Water Project is but one piece in a complex structure that supplies water to 25 million people of the state's 37 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland. All parts of the state water supply are under stress.

Shrinking underground aquifers, the adjudication of water from the Colorado River , the ever-rising population and endangered species cause concern in places like the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta and Klamath River .

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger well knows, the state needs more surface water storage to meet the needs of agriculture, a growing population and fish habitat. Conservation is not the sole answer.

An example of this is the Salton Sea in Southern California 's desert. As agricultural water in the region gets redirected to San Diego water customers, the Salton Sea is shrinking - even though farmers use less water and more efficient irrigation methods.

Water districts that rely on the Banks' pumps hope the current drastic time will pass quickly, and the drastic measure of drawing on other water stores won't prove to be a disaster later.

More water storage would ensure that water is available to help urban residents, farms, businesses and endangered species in low water years and times of drought which come often to California . Additional, or larger, reservoirs may also take pressure off the state's aging levees in years when there is too much water.

How much more drastic does it need to get before the state upgrades its present water system, built around the Central Valley Project, which started construction more than 70 years ago?

It's time to act before a prolonged drought leaves pumps, fish, crops, livestock, wildlife and people sucking nothing but hot, dry air.

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