It is very good news that this option is back in play, but sad that it was not completed when first introduced, as many years of environmental degradation could have been avoided; perhaps an object lesson for other water projects being held up?
Delta diversion dispute resurfaces
MYRIAD RISKS IGNITE INTEREST AFTER 25 YEARS
By Samantha Young
Associated Press
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:06/18/2007 01:35:33 AM PDT
SACRAMENTO - In 1980, as California was recovering from its longest drought since the Depression, state lawmakers thought they had found a solution to weather future water shortages.
A 43-mile canal would route fresh Sierra runoff around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. But the plan proved too controversial and was trounced two years later in a statewide election.
A quarter-century later, the idea is back in play.
Declining fish populations, fragile levees that could crumble and allow sea water to contaminate the delta and rising oceans caused by global climate change have prompted policy-makers to reconsider the Peripheral Canal.
They say a new plumbing system could solve the delta's worsening environmental problems and safeguard California's water supply.
Levees unsustainable
"There is a growing recognition that the present layout of the levees and delivering fresh water out of the delta is something we can't maintain long term," said Robert Twiss, a University of California-Berkeley environmental planning professor who advises the state on water issues.
Efforts to protect a threatened fish, the delta smelt, have created a sense of urgency and refocused the debate on building a canal that would route California's fresh water around the delta.
Earlier this spring, state and federal courts ruled that pumping operations are killing the fish. After a record low count of the smelt's population, the state Department of Water Resources temporarily shut down its main pumping plant for more than a week, forcing some cities and rural water districts to cut back on water use.
Last September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order starting a comprehensive review of the delta's water, roads, utility lines and ecosystem. During a recent talk to farmers in Bakersfield, he strongly advocated building new reservoirs and a canal.
"We need to build more storage and we have to build conveyance, the canal, all of those kinds of things, even though its politically risky again. But it's one of those big, big issues that has been swept under the rug for decades," he said. "We have studied this subject to death. It's time for action."
On Thursday, Schwarzenegger, who also called for $4 billion in state spending to build two large new reservoirs in Colusa County and east of Fresno, announced he will support building the Peripheral Canal.
