Farm interests: Delta report distracts from reality

Following report's advice would empty Shasta, Oroville lakes

By WES SANDER

Capital Press

California ag-water interests say a report calling for greater Delta flows is distracting attention from the state's realistic water-supply goals and is too narrow in scope to be of real use.

The report, approved on Aug. 3 by the State Water Resources Control Board, said the water pumped from, and diverted before reaching, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for farmers and cities must be reduced by around half in order to sustain the fish currently under protected status in the estuary.

The report was required by the Delta-centered bill package that lawmakers approved last fall. The data was considered necessary for crafting a new management plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Its scope is intentionally narrow, considering no other factors that might impact native species.

It stated that from January through June, 75 percent of the Delta's natural flows must be allowed to reach the ocean. Flows have ranged between 100 to 30 percent over the last 20 years, averaging about 50 percent of natural flow, according to the report.

Such a change would virtually empty the state's central storage, said Mike Wade, director of the California Farm Water Coalition.

"It would absolutely drain most of our reservoir systems," he said. "(Lake) Shasta would drain to deadpool. (Lake) Oroville would drain to deadpool."

Wade said ag-water interests worry that the report could skew public perception of the big picture, and that could serve the interests of those arguing for reduced Delta deliveries. It wouldn't be helpful to the plan-writing process, which water interests are engaged in, he said.

"I think most people that understand California water know that these other things exist out there, and have to be considered," Wade said. "But we don't know if legislators or regulators with an agenda to push will use this (report) to push their own efforts."

The water board likewise qualifies its report by mentioning other factors impacting the Delta.

Had the board been setting standards for new regulations, it would have considered "a broad range of public interest matters, including economics, power production, human health and welfare requirements, and the effects of flow measures on non-aquatic resources (such as habitat for terrestrial species)," the report stated.

While the report is intended to function as one input of a broader process, it could have a distracting effect, said Dan Nelson, director of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority, a collection of Delta-area districts agencies.

"The intent was a fairly narrow scope, and it should be taken with that in mind," Nelson said. "It needs to be looked at in a very comprehensive manner, and my sense is that's the path we're on.

"Used as a tool, as one factor of many, it'll be useful," Nelson said. "I think the real danger of the report is that too much be read into it."

Last year's legislation called for the report as a key input in creating two management plans. The Delta Plan is to be written by the Delta Stewardship Council, itself created by last year's legislation. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is currently being shaped by the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor's plan aims to solve flow problems with a canal or pipeline for diverting water before it reaches the Delta.

"How do we make it work with the factors we have existing is where we need to get to," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the agricultural Westlands Water District, which encompasses much of the San Joaquin Valley's west side. "There has to be a balance."

David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association, which represents ag users, said the report's narrow scope makes it useless to ongoing efforts at balancing the needs of human activity and the environment.

"I think there's no value," Guy said. "What is frustrating to us is that these are very serious issues. We have spent a lot of time, energy and investment in working to protect fish, but this report adds no value to that whatsoever."