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Bruising battles loom in California
Measures to protect
threatened delta smelt may crimp supply for irrigators
Tim Hearden
Capital
Press
February 12, 2009
 |
| A mixture of rain and snow flurries during the December storms wasn't much help to Shasta Lake, which was at only 30 percent of capacity before January's dry spell. |
Mark Twain is believed to have said, "Whiskey is for drinkin', and water
is for fightin' over."
If that's true, then California may be in for some bruising brawls in the coming year.
A third year of drought and new measures to protect endangered fish may deliver a devastating one-two punch to the state's farms and ranches, not to mention the Southern California urban centers that rely on water shipped from the north.
"It's going to be an interesting year," said Tim DeAtley, co-owner of the Bar Eleven Ranch near the Shasta County town of Millville. "Those people in Southern California who gave money to the organizations that wanted to shut down the pumps, they're going to wonder if they donated to the right organizations when their toilets don't flush."
The main event among California's water fights centers around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where a flurry of lawsuits and biological reports will determine how much water is allowed to be pumped south.
Irrigators below the delta could lose up to half their water under a recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect threatened delta smelt. Two environmental groups have sued to shut down the pumps in the delta entirely, while a trio of water districts filed their own lawsuits to overturn restrictions on delta water delivery operations.
Another biological opinion is due out in March, this one on the impact that water diversions may be having on salmon and steelhead trout.
"What we're hearing is that's going to be a very tough biological opinion, too," said Chris Scheuring, an environmental water attorney for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
The delta is far from the only battle scene, however. Along the San Joaquin River, lawmakers hope to end more than 20 years of wrangling between local water users and federal regulators with a compromise river restoration bill.
The bill, which passed the U.S. Senate in mid-January and was sent to the House of Representatives, authorizes $88 million in federal funds to be combined with state bond money for restoring water flows and salmon to the river below Friant Dam.
Critics have complained that the bill is too expensive and would steal millions of acre-feet of agricultural water for the benefit of a small number of fish.
Another potential source of discord may be a looming decision on the immediate fate of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, whose removal could deprive some 150,000 acres of Northern California farmland of most of its water.
Making matters worse has been a persistent drought. Most areas of the state were beneath their seasonal average rainfall totals even before the spigot shut off for much of January, and many reservoirs around the state are filled to only a tiny fraction of their capacity.
Last year, some 80,000 agricultural acres went out of production because of water cutbacks, causing some $280 million in calculated losses, Scheuring said. With the drought and diversion restrictions lingering, more land will likely be fallowed this year, he said.
"We consider it a perfect storm, not just for agriculture but for the whole state," he said. "Obviously, we're concerned with agriculture. ... We think our farmers are going to be some of the folks hurting the most."
Scheuring said that while California's water supply has remained static over the past 40 years, the population has exploded, putting a much greater demand on water. He said California needs more storage, and perhaps needs some sort of peripheral canal to bypass the delta - two measures that he concedes aren't likely to materialize soon.
"Unfortunately I do think it's going to get worse before it gets better," he said. "What we need to do is bridge the gap in communication to let folks know that in the water world, it's not an ag issue, it's a food issue. It's a people issue and it's a state issue, and we're all in this together."
Staff writer Tim Hearden is based in Shasta Lake. E-mail: thearden@capitalpress.com.
If that's true, then California may be in for some bruising brawls in the coming year.
A third year of drought and new measures to protect endangered fish may deliver a devastating one-two punch to the state's farms and ranches, not to mention the Southern California urban centers that rely on water shipped from the north.
"It's going to be an interesting year," said Tim DeAtley, co-owner of the Bar Eleven Ranch near the Shasta County town of Millville. "Those people in Southern California who gave money to the organizations that wanted to shut down the pumps, they're going to wonder if they donated to the right organizations when their toilets don't flush."
The main event among California's water fights centers around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where a flurry of lawsuits and biological reports will determine how much water is allowed to be pumped south.
Irrigators below the delta could lose up to half their water under a recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect threatened delta smelt. Two environmental groups have sued to shut down the pumps in the delta entirely, while a trio of water districts filed their own lawsuits to overturn restrictions on delta water delivery operations.
Another biological opinion is due out in March, this one on the impact that water diversions may be having on salmon and steelhead trout.
"What we're hearing is that's going to be a very tough biological opinion, too," said Chris Scheuring, an environmental water attorney for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
The delta is far from the only battle scene, however. Along the San Joaquin River, lawmakers hope to end more than 20 years of wrangling between local water users and federal regulators with a compromise river restoration bill.
The bill, which passed the U.S. Senate in mid-January and was sent to the House of Representatives, authorizes $88 million in federal funds to be combined with state bond money for restoring water flows and salmon to the river below Friant Dam.
Critics have complained that the bill is too expensive and would steal millions of acre-feet of agricultural water for the benefit of a small number of fish.
Another potential source of discord may be a looming decision on the immediate fate of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, whose removal could deprive some 150,000 acres of Northern California farmland of most of its water.
Making matters worse has been a persistent drought. Most areas of the state were beneath their seasonal average rainfall totals even before the spigot shut off for much of January, and many reservoirs around the state are filled to only a tiny fraction of their capacity.
Last year, some 80,000 agricultural acres went out of production because of water cutbacks, causing some $280 million in calculated losses, Scheuring said. With the drought and diversion restrictions lingering, more land will likely be fallowed this year, he said.
"We consider it a perfect storm, not just for agriculture but for the whole state," he said. "Obviously, we're concerned with agriculture. ... We think our farmers are going to be some of the folks hurting the most."
Scheuring said that while California's water supply has remained static over the past 40 years, the population has exploded, putting a much greater demand on water. He said California needs more storage, and perhaps needs some sort of peripheral canal to bypass the delta - two measures that he concedes aren't likely to materialize soon.
"Unfortunately I do think it's going to get worse before it gets better," he said. "What we need to do is bridge the gap in communication to let folks know that in the water world, it's not an ag issue, it's a food issue. It's a people issue and it's a state issue, and we're all in this together."
Staff writer Tim Hearden is based in Shasta Lake. E-mail: thearden@capitalpress.com.
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