Water planning left high & dry

Capital Press Editorial

May 9, 2008

California is in a tightening drought noose. Water districts have bumped rates. Communities have urgently pumped up conservation efforts. Farmers are bracing for a long, hot dry summer.

The state's last snow survey of the season was little comfort. The water content of the Sierra snowpack is just 67 percent of average for May 1, the result of the driest March and April since 1921.

The parched prospects have prompted local communities to do the only thing they can - ask residents to scrimp on water use. So far, water conservation is voluntary, but some water districts are preparing mandatory water rationing if things don't improve.

Southern California 's Metropolitan Water District has hiked its rates by 14 percent and reduced deliveries to agricultural customers by nearly a third.

Customers of the Westlands Water District, on the western side of Fresno and Kings counties, have been assured of 45 percent of their contracted amounts of irrigation water from the federal Central Valley Project this season. But that won't be nearly enough to stave off fallowing as much as one-third of the district's 600,000 acres of farmland, according to district officials.

Legislative attempts on a comprehensive water infrastructure plan backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have run aground at the Capitol.

There is a consensus that California faces a serious and growing water crisis and there is even broad support for conservation, groundwater banking and water reuse projects that can help stretch limited water supplies. But there is a political impasse on building new reservoirs and improving conveyance around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as Schwarzenegger and some legislators have advocated in a state water bond.

The problem is partly rooted in money. The state faces as much as a $20 billion budget deficit. Schwarzenegger has proposed building Temperance Flat Reservoir near Fresno and Sites Reservoir near Maxwell in the Sacramento Valley, part of a $10 billion plan that would also fix the ailing delta ecosystem, the hub of the state's plumbing pipeline.

Backers of the plan, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, believe new reservoirs are essential components to solving California 's worsening water woes. They argue that water behind dams could help not only water users, but it could help the dwindling population of delta smelt that caused court-ordered pumping cutbacks last year.

Reservoir supporters think the added water supply could help migrating salmon. Improved conveyance to move water more efficiently, either through or around the Delta, could also yield environmental restoration benefits.

State Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, who has carried the water on Schwarzenegger's plan at the Capitol, said earlier this year as the budget deficit was growing that California could ill afford to postpone action.

"It is unconscionable for us to continue to put off critical infrastructure needs because the Legislature doesn't know how to control spending. This state needs to prioritize its spending and it's my opinion that providing for our water infrastructure should be a top priority," Cogdill said in a statement.

Unfortunately, building new reservoirs - at any price - is too expensive for some lawmakers and environmental groups. For others, reservoirs don't fit their ideology. State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, preferred a different approach than the one advocated by Schwarzenegger. He floated a competing water bond that relied on recycling, conservation and water recharge programs.

To his credit, Cogdill has not given up hope on pushing a water bond forward. He has been meeting regularly with Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, to strike a deal.

"Talks continue, work continues to happen, but in terms of a concrete legislative proposal, that is still a work in progress," said Sabrina Lockhart, Cogdill's press secretary.

The window of opportunity to place a water bond on the November ballot has evaporated. It appears now that any progress on a water deal will have to wait at least until 2009 or later. That means relief for the state's myriad water problems will be that much longer in coming when political minds finally meet on a solution.

This year will be telling in at least one respect. Those who think California can conserve its way out of drought will be put to a real test. We can only hope that brown lawns and fallowed farm fields don't become a permanent part of the state's landscape. 

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