Still the best way to protect the Delta.
Plan suggests canal is crucial to Delta revival
By Mike Taugher
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 11/18/2007 04:29:51 PM PST
Government biologists have concluded the most promising way to save the Delta is to divert water around it through a canal -- an idea often derided as a Southern California water grab that would ensure the destruction of the region.
Wildlife agencies recently told planners that a Peripheral Canal is "the most attractive option" to help quench California's thirst for more drinking and irrigation water while fixing the Delta's dying ecosystem.
Voters rejected the canal in 1982, and opposition was fierce in Contra Costa because of the threat a canal poses to the local water supply.
By siphoning water out of the Sacramento River before it reaches the Delta, the canal would reduce the amount of fresh water near Contra Costa Water District's intakes in the south Delta and increase the concentration of pollution and salt water.
If built, however, a new canal probably would be operated and managed in conjunction with the existing state and federal intakes near Tracy. That would ensure more water stays in the Delta and could help offset the deleterious effects a new canal would have on water quality in the south Delta, the sole water source for 500,000 people.
The call for in-depth study of a Peripheral Canal comes during fast-moving negotiations for a pact to stabilize the state's dwindling and increasingly vulnerable water supplies while also protecting the environment.
