When the plans were being drawn up in the 1930’s to protect the Sacramento valley from the floods one dam, Shasta, was engineered for 800 feet rather than its current 600 (which would have tripled its storage), Oroville Dam at 700 was built, and Auburn Dam at 700 feet was also proposed.
Had all these projects been completed as and when planned, we would not have had the flooding nor water shortage difficulties we have had since, and had the peripheral canal been built when planned, we would not have the level of Delta problems we now have.
So the Governor’s obsession is correctly placed and a blueprint is out there; see our 2006 research report on our website www.arpps.org
Editorial: Whales getting attention as Delta smelt vanish
A full-blown California water crisis looms for a governor obsessing over dams
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, May 20, 2007
It's easier for us all to understand certain problems. When a tanker trunk carrying gasoline overturns and ignites a spectacular freeway fire that crumbles a section of Oakland's MacArthur Maze, the impact on transportation is readily apparent. Or when two humpback whales wander deep into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the rareness of this deviation is instinctive.
But some huge challenges don't look that way at first. Take a tiny fish in the Delta known as a smelt. State biologists should be finding thousands of them this time of year. Instead, they are finding a handful. The smelt are indicators of the overall health of the estuary. And their dramatic decline could have an impact to the state that is far greater than Oakland's freeway fire. Management of the state's largest water sources, the state and federal pumps in the southern Delta, hangs in the balance. And what's worrisome is that the experts may know more about nudging whales from the Delta than saving these smelt.
This vanishing tiny fish could very soon present Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with his first, true water crisis. None of the choices are easy, but running from the problem may be the riskiest of them all. Environmental groups as soon as Monday are expected to be in court demanding tougher enforcement of the California Endangered Species Act. Courts have threatened to take over control of the Delta before. It is inevitable unless fixing the Delta gets the same level of urgency out of this administration as fixing the MacArthur Maze.
