California's need for water will not evaporate

Editorial

Word last week that federal water managers were increasing this year's allotment for irrigation is being greeted with understandable skepticism by growers in California's parched San Joaquin Valley.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation announced that irrigators south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would receive 5 percent of their contracted allocations, but could receive up to 30 percent if wet weather continues. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Department of Interior officials have told her that they could increase that allocation by 10 percentage points through various administrative actions.

The state Department of Water Resources increased its projection for deliveries to State Water Project contractors to 15 percent of contracted amounts. The state had previously forecast 5 percent. By the department's own measure, if this estimate stays in place it would be the lowest delivery in 50 years.

This time last year, the feds had pegged allocations at 0 percent of contract amounts. While actual deliveries eventually hit 10 percent, more than 400,000 acres south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta were left fallow.

A promise of 5 percent, which probably will be increased in coming months, isn't going to put that land back into production. After more than three years of drought, 5 percent isn't enough water in some cases to produce financing, let alone a crop. Sarah Woolf, a spokesperson for Westlands Water District, told Capital Press that growers need assurances of at least 30 percent to get bank financing.

In the wake of the bureau's announcement, Feinstein said she would hold off attaching to a federal jobs bill an amendment that would require the allotments be increased. The wording of that amendment has never been released, but in her public statements Feinstein had said she wanted allotments to be increased to up to 40 percent in each of the next two seasons. Reportedly, that would have been accomplished by changing technical wording in a biological opinion that limits Delta pump plant intake during certain months of a dry year.

The Capital Press, along with many other papers in the valley, applauded her efforts. Others were not so kind.

Feinstein was excoriated by fellow Democrats and environmentalists for even threatening a measure that would save the jobs of thousands of her constituents at the perceived expense of the Delta smelt and the salmon, whose water rations are ensured by judicial fiat.

By promising farmers 5 percent, far short of 40 percent, the bureau seems to have provided Feinstein with adequate political cover to hold her powder for now.

That's a shame.

California farmers and the people they employ need more water, and Feinstein needs to keep up the pressure until they get it.