In an era of diminishing water available for growing populations, sensible leadership will seek ways to increase their access to the available water, and visionary leadership will seek ways to increase the supply of water.
In our region, building the Auburn Dam is one such strategy that also has a larger consequence in that it provides Sacramento with 500 year flood protection.
Sacramento water rights are targeted
El Dorado agency takes a step to gain control
By Cathy Locke - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, June 12, 2007
While saying they would prefer negotiation to litigation, El Dorado Irrigation District board members Monday agreed to join with a coalition in a potential battle with the city of Sacramento over water rights.
Under a cost-sharing agreement with three other agencies, the irrigation district would assume more than 40 percent of an initial $3.9 million cost for environmental studies, permit fees and legal counsel to wrest rights to water that originates in El Dorado County but currently is assigned to Sacramento.
Negotiations have occurred in closed sessions for two or three years, said director George Wheeldon.
"This is the first shot across the bow, as far as I'm concerned," he said, in supporting the cost-sharing agreement.
Under a 2005 "cooperation agreement" between the El Dorado Water and Power Authority and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, El Dorado County water purveyors were granted use of SMUD's upper American River facilities for water delivery and drought storage.
But the water and power authority -- consisting of the irrigation district, El Dorado County, El Dorado County Water Agency and the Georgetown Divide Public Utility District -- needs water rights to take advantage of the delivery and storage capacity.
