Excellent rebut to the argument that dams do little good, with pointed examples and reminders of their true environmental value which is often discarded by an unreasonable (and harmful to the public good) aversion to using technology to solve problems.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 02, 2007
EDITORIAL
Perata errs on dams
IF CALIFORNIA IS TO have adequate supplies of fresh water for agriculture, industry and residential use in the future, water storage, including new or expanded reservoirs, must be part of the solution. That is especially true if global warming reduces the snowfall in the Sierra mountains.
Conservation, groundwater storage and desalination also must be included, but they alone will not provide enough water for a growing population and a healthy agriculture industry.
Unfortunately, there are those in the Legislature, including Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, who disagree. He and some other Democrats oppose the portion of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's infrastructure plans that includes dams.
Perata said, "We do not believe new dams, at this point, are needed. They cost billions of dollars and they take years, in fact decades, to build."
Amazingly, Perata used the Los Vaqueros Reservoir near Brentwood as an example of why building reservoirs is a bad idea.
"Just look at Los Vaqueros. It was approved by voters in 1988. It was supposed to be a $450 million dam. It was finally completed in the 2000s. And it cost at least three times the $450 million. Why? Any time you build a new dam, the one thing you can count on is a lawsuit," Perata said.
Perata is dead wrong on everything he said about Los Vaqueros except the date it was approved by voters. The dam was essentially built in 1995, just seven years after it was approved, and filled in 1997.
The entire project's cost was under the $450 million budget, not three times that amount as Perata said. Furthermore, there were no lawsuits filed against the project. That's because the Contra Costa Water District, which owns Los Vaqueros, worked with environmentalists, water users and the public to win broad support for the reservoir.
Today, the reservoir is providing high-quality water to much of the East Bay and has a reserve supply in case of drought. In fact, Los Vaqueros is a shining example of how to build a reservoir and one that should be followed when other reservoirs are built or expanded in California.
Perata is right in saying that reservoirs are expensive and take years to build. He is also correct in saying we don't need reservoirs today. However, he is mistaken if he believes California won't need new reservoirs in a decade or two.
His statement that it takes years to build a reservoir should be seen as an argument in favor of moving ahead now so that water storage capacity will be adequate in the future.
If we do not start now on increasing above- and below-ground water storage, it is likely that agriculture will suffer most because it uses at least 80 percent of the state's water supply.
The choice well could be to build reservoirs now or see a sharp decline in California's agriculture industry, the largest of any state's in the nation.
True environmentalists also should strongly support new reservoirs. They supply fresh water in dry periods to protect the ecology of state rivers and improve fish populations.
Also, reservoirs provide new habitat for a large number of species and offer large tracts of open space and park land.
