Almost all agree that the Delta — the state’s largest water system and in many ways the carrier of California’s lifeblood — is in serious trouble. And they all agree it needs fixing, fast.
As a response to those concerns and a three-year drought, a quintet of bills is floating through the state Legislature with the goal of completely overhauling the state’s patchwork water system.
Not everyone is impressed.
Bill Jennings, longtime activist and a member of Restore the Delta and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, doesn’t mince words. He told me this week that the legislative package is a rush job that could have a “horrific impact” on the Delta and those who depend upon it.
To say that this cure is worse than the illness is quite the indictment.
The Delta is dammed, diverted, polluted and plain overused. Fish populations have crashed, water quality has cratered and there’s not nearly enough water there to give the state’s users what they’ve been promised.
Not to wade into hyperbole, but the Delta’s close to collapse.
Following the example of the past 30 years and doing nothing seems to invite disaster.
Still, to Jennings and several other watchdogs, the most recent attempt to repair the West’s largest estuary is really no healing effort at all. It’s a way to rework water rights to favor Southern California urbanites and those using exported wet stuff to farm the west side of the Central Valley at the expense of those who call the Delta home.
Specifically, Jennings and Restore the Delta’s Barbara Barrigan-Parilla say the bills are based not on the best possible water policy but on the premise of building a peripheral canal that will funnel fresh water straight to Parts Previously Unwatered, leaving farmers, boaters and anglers in the lower reaches of the Delta high and dry.
Their take, it should be noted, isn’t the whole story. Sen. Lois Wolk, who authored one of the five bills, is a stated opponent of such a canal and fierce advocate for Delta residents. And other lawmakers have insisted their legislation does not support or argue for such a project.
However, Jennings contends the package paves the path for a peripheral canal by granting governance of the Delta to a “stewardship council,” with a majority of the council’s positions being gubernatorial appointees.
There’s no denying a peripheral canal has been a long-stated goal of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. If such legislation were to pass, it’s no stretch of the imagination to picture a board stacked with canal rah-rahs.
That in and of itself should worry anyone who calls the Central Valley home. Because if you live here, your life is affected by the rhythms of the Delta. It might not be by the ebb and flow of the tide, but it’s guaranteed you drink the water, know someone who farms thanks to that water, or eat the food produced by it.
Tracy is no exception. Many local farmers depend on it, the city uses the estuary to dispose of its treated wastewater, and each time a Tank Towner turns on the shower, a little bit of the Delta comes streaming out.
Wholesale changes to a river system that provides water to millions of acres of farmland and millions of people — not to mention one that is home to more than 4 million people — should not be made in a hurry. Especially if those changes lead to the creation of a new system that drains our region’s environmental and economic vitality.
There’s no denying that the Delta’s pulse is faint and getting fainter, nor is there any argument that the status quo is unacceptable.
But not just any fix will do. It must be the right one.
What’s on the table doesn’t seem to fit that description.
The five water bills
• Senate Bill 12, by Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto
• Senate Bill 229, by Fran Pavley, D-Santa Monica
• Senate Bill 458, by Lois Wolk, D-Davis (Tracy representative)
• Assembly Bill 39, by Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael
• Assembly Bill 49, by Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles
• Share your thoughts with associate editor and columnist Jon Mendelson at jmendelson@tracypress.com.
If this video don't shock the "sh!t" outta ya, I don't know what will. And there are some who will tell you we need to spend OVER $50 billion dollars for another canal that will turn the Delta into a mud bath for sea-weed with a peripheral canal idea.
Never mind the fact that we already got a useless aquaduct. We want another one.
???
Yep, you heard it right. You have a Delta-Mendota Canal that goes south to Mendota, but the city of Mendota is getting zero percent water because environmentalists have sued to shutdown water to the farmers resulting in higher food prices.
Check out the video.
Mentota is a ghost town with 40 some percent unemployment and a "prison". The result of liberals and lawyers.
Real nice. Give us another useless $50 billion dollar aquaduct.
The price tag on the peripheral canal
"$50 billion dollars."
Saving the Mendota smelt from liberal lawyers
'Priceless'
The price tag on the peripheral canal
"$50 billion dollars."
Saving the Mendota smelt from liberal lawyers
'Priceless'
Your the one who said you paid $5.00 per gallon of milk. I'm telling you what the cause and effect is of higher prices.
The Canal has a price tag of 10 million, once the unions get on the job the tag will be about 40 million. The good thing is that it will bring jobs other than building houses. The way we are going will soon have more vacant homes, we need the jobs.
Haven't had a drop pass my lips in 20 years an don't miss it at all. Heart's OK, rest of the body is doin well fer it's age, nope, don't think ya really need somethin that really ain't all that good fer ya in th first place.
But shsh, Dairy farmers don't want ya ta know that now do they? :)
I pay cash. The issue was not location but the peripheral canal. The price of cars are still high because there are those in DC who freely give too much cash to foreign automakers who have excess inventory. Then say nada when they pull the plug on 4600 NUMI jobs. They won't drill offshore so the cost of corn remains high. It can't last forever.
The issue was if we keep these special interest politicians in office we are going to continued to get screwed.
Support prices are one thing but gouging the tax payers is something else. Why don't the prices of cars, food and gas drop as houses prices did.
The answer to your question is no. Another water scanal won't help solve the problem. Let me try to highlight the problem. Draining the Delta will leave us with mud. Not much of an environmental ecosystem.
I also find it odd that a former republican has started hocking the peripheral canal as a solution when it won't create sustainable jobs. Robbing us of our environmental resources.
What would happen if CA split into two separate states and S CA was finally told to find the solutions to their own problems?
Ten?
I stopped at the local mini mart and bought a quart of milk today. Guess what it's alreadycosting me over five dollars a gallon.
Where you been? If you're going to try to use prices as a political tactic could you at least get the price right?
Turns out milk prices are linked to another commodity, corn, which also doubled.
Remind us again why you didn't win the election
Against Ornellas?
So th solution ta th problem is ta go ahead an take more water from an area where all th wildlife an fish are stressed ta th max already because of a lack of fresh water?
Just do it fer th money ya can save on yer taxes an destroy species of plants an animals fer th rest of all time?
Sorry but that don't sound like a good idea ta me.
Takin water out of a watershed an stressin everyting in that ecosystem is what started th decline of the Delta an Bay Area waters in th first place an ya want ta put th final nail in that coffin by takin yet more?
Guess it's ok if it saves ya a little tax money but somehow I think we can come up with a better solution so our posterity can see some of th things alive instead of readin about em in history books.
But hey, greed is good, everybody does it. That makes killin th Delta fer money OK.
We need the work in the valley vote for the canal. The water will still go South, at a price so that the voters can get help to generate money for the states economy. Not just for special interest farmers and land owners.
Remember the old saying read my lips, if you make over $250,000 you pay less taxes.