Water activities include delta plan, storage rally

More activities intended to address ongoing problems with the state's water delivery system occurred in Sacramento during the past week, including release of an updated plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and an event to promote construction of new reservoirs.

The California Department of Water Resources announced release of what it called a recirculated draft environmental document, which outlines a new, preferred fix for problems in the delta. Called the "California Water Fix," the approach has been included in planning and environmental documents that have been more than a decade in the making.

"The California Water Fix reflects numerous changes to the earlier documents," said Justin Fredrickson, California Farm Bureau Federation environmental policy analyst. "There are some significant changes California farmers and ranchers should know about."

For example, he said, there is a shift away from creating an overarching Bay-Delta Conservation Plan to creation of two separate plans—the California Water Fix, which covers proposed construction of water transport tunnels, and "Eco-Restore," which calls for restoration of wildlife habitat.

"The restoration program—at 30,000 acres implemented in the next five years at a public cost of $300 million—is down significantly from the 80,000 to 100,000 acres previously targeted under the BDCP, over 50 years, at a cost of $8 billion."

He said much of the Eco-Restore plan builds on actions already required under existing biological opinions for state and federal water projects, including seasonal flood and fish passage in the Yolo Bypass and some tidal marsh restoration in locations including Prospect Island, the west delta and Suisun Marsh.

Under the projected Water Fix, water supplies for agriculture, cities and businesses south of the delta would vary significantly between wet and dry years, averaging 5 million acre-feet a year, but Fredrickson noted implementation of the tunnel project is controversial, complex and years away.

There will be public meetings to discuss the documents, July 28 in Sacramento, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., followed July 29 by meetings in Walnut Grove, at the Jean Harvie Senior and Community Center at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The public comment period runs through Aug. 3. More information on the revamped delta plan is available online at www.californiawaterfix.com/.

Meanwhile, the State Water Resources Control Board approved further water cutbacks to benefit protected salmon runs. Against that backdrop, Northern California groups met to promote more storage in California. They were joined by lawmakers and members of the media outside the state Capitol.

"We need to upgrade our water system," said Nadine Bailey, chief operating officer for the Family Water Alliance, one of the groups promoting the event. "We have a water system that was built by our grandfathers, and it needs an upgrade."

She stressed the immediate need to build the proposed Sites Reservoir in Colusa County, where the alliance is based.

"It's unbelievable that here in California we have communities where wells have gone completely dry, where people can't flush their toilets or take showers, and they don't have clean drinking water," Assembly Member Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, told the gathering.

Calling the state's water-storage infrastructure "completely outdated," Assembly Member Devon Mathis, R-Visalia, noted that in Porterville, more than 7,000 residents don't have water.

Mathis said his office has been working with local, state and regional agencies to bring needed supplies to people in his district, "but these actions aren't a long-term solution. We have to push forward to build dams, desalination plants, recycling facilities. Everybody needs to come together to fix our water supply problems."

Andrew Meredith, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 340 of Redding, said projects such as raising Shasta Dam and building Sites and Temperance Flat reservoirs would provide good-paying construction jobs and support the economies of communities while increasing water supplies for the entire state.

(Kate Campbell is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)