More at stake than water availability in California politics
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2016 - During the drought, California
has survived largely on water collected in reservoirs from Sierra Nevada snow
and rain in the fall and winter, and here’s where that measure stands: Statewide reservoirs
are at 80 percent of average water level, compared with 53 percent a year ago.
That said, California faces mountainous hurdles to ensure
adequate water for urban, industrial, farm and wildlife uses in the long term.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s statewide order for 25 percent water conservation, mandated
last year, is losing
steam. Meanwhile, Brown is pressing the California Legislature to proceed
with his costly ($16 billion), complex and contentious plan to install two huge
tunnels to transport water from the estuary, called the delta area, of the
state’s two principal rivers – Sacramento and San Joaquin – to Southern
California.
But Brown’s plan may be politically derailed on Nov. 8,
when Californians vote on any future state issuance of more than $2 billion in
revenue bonds. What’s more, the State Water
Resources Control Board (WRCB) has drafted a plan that would increase flows
for endangered fish species in three San Joaquin River tributaries - reducing
water held in reservoirs for farm and city use.
Danny Merkley, director of water resources for the
California Farm Bureau Federation, says of the tunnels project: “I commend the
governor for trying to fix the plumbing problem we have.” But, he says, “I
represent a general farm organization with members statewide, [and] there are
very different opinions about that, whether it is our members in the delta area
or . . . in Northern California or . . . in Southern California or in the San
Joaquin Valley.” In the delta area, farmers want sufficient flow to prevent
intrusion of ocean salt water into the estuary; northern farmers oppose loss of
more water transported south; and whatever is done must deliver affordable
water for the southern farmers who will end up paying for that additional
water.
Meanwhile, farmers do see a ray of light in some upcoming
water supply improvements to be funded with the $2 billion bond issuance
approved by voters two years ago. “It is a small down payment on new water
infrastructure,” Merkley says. The state plan for water handling and storage
projects to be funded by the bonds is to be proposed in two months, and farmers
are holding their breaths, hoping for farm-friendly proposals, he say.
Also, note this stab at improved water savings. CDFA and
the Department of Water Resources are jointly launching a
new program with $6 million for grants, called the Agricultural Water Use
Efficiency and State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program. Water suppliers
and agricultural operations can win the grants for projects to improve
efficiency of agricultural water use and water conveyance systems.
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