Many years ago, public leadership in California decided that the best way to provide water for the state was to build Shasta Dam 200 feet higher than it was built (which would have tripled its storage capacity) and the Auburn Dam.
Both projects were approved, but resistance resulted in Shasta being 200 feet lower (though still engineered according to the original plan), and Auburn not being built.
Had both been built as planned, along with the peripheral canal, there would not be any water shortage problems in California.
Deferred plans do not mean cancelled plans. It is still possible to provide water for California and the bonus flood protection that would also ensue.
Less Delta water means dry times
Calls to redesign the estuary follow order to curtail pumping.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 6, 2007
Water rationing. Idled farmland. Hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses. Dry times lie ahead for a state struggling to serve up more water from a tapped-out ecosystem.
A judge's order last Friday is expected to require state and federal agencies to pump one-third less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The estuary provides water to 23 million Californians and about 5 million acres of farmland.
The historic order rocked cities, farmers and water officials statewide, who fear that shortages are ahead.
"It's our quality of life that is at stake and the regional economy as well," said Greg Zlotnick, special counsel for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which provides Delta water to 1.7 million people in Silicon Valley.
On Wednesday, a powerful alliance of water interests used that concern to press hard for a package of politically touchy solutions: new dams and a canal around the Delta favored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
