The case against, though one wonders how anyone can reasonably continue to make it.
Arguments against building a 'peripheral canal'
By Jonas Minton - Special to The Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, August 5, 2007
A major threat to values we treasure is widely recognized. Experts are sent in to carry out inspections. But even before all the data are gathered, the chief executive takes decisive action. It appears there has been a quick victory.
Unfortunately it soon turns out that the problems were as complex as many had predicted. Costs skyrocket. Locals do not shower us with flowers but instead resent our presence. The overall situation is worse than before we acted. We respond with heroic surges but conditions continue to deteriorate.
Does this sound familiar?
Those are exactly the risks some ask us to take by approving a "peripheral canal" before we have all the facts about building an aqueduct around the east side of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Delta -- the largest estuary on the west coasts of North and South America -- is one of California's most important water resources. More than 400,000 acres of family farms tap the Delta's water to grow asparagus, tomatoes, corn, grapes and more. More than 515,000 residents live in the Delta, a maze of islands and sloughs. All of the salmon in the Central Valley travel through the Delta on their way to the ocean before returning through the Delta to spawn upstream. It is one of several important water supplies for more than 20 million Californians.
There is no disagreement that the way the Delta is currently managed is not sustainable. In the past 150 years man has altered the landscape of the Delta by building levees and digging channels, with a loss of more than 90 percent of the natural habitat. Houses are built below sea level behind inadequate levees that cannot be protected. Pollution from farms and cities poisons the water and its life.
One fish species, the Delta smelt, teeters on the brink of extinction while others, like the green sturgeon, are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Fortunately, experts have identified many actions that can and should be taken immediately. Now is the time to reduce pollution coming from agricultural and urban areas. There should be no further delays in fully enforcing the Clean Water Act to protect our drinking water as well as endangered fisheries. Floodwater bypasses such as the Yolo Bypass need to be expanded or created. Damaged habitat needs to be restored. Conservation and recycling of our existing waters supplies need to be increased.
It is also time to recognize that the balkanized land-use decision-making in the Delta must be reformed. Some of the cities and counties need to stop allowing housing to be built in floodplains and behind inadequate levees.
