While most of the political chatter following Gov. Jerry Brown's State of the State address last week focused on high-speed rail and his proposed tax initiative, the big issue quietly lapping the Capitol halls is water.
Coalition response...To suggest that some San Joaquin Valley farmers should walk away from their lands because of a salt issue fails to recognize how productive these farmers are. These farmers are employing the newest technology and efficient irrigation practices that enable them to produce safe and healthful food that serves California families and many others around the world. Efforts by farmers in the Grassland Bypass Project south of Los Banos have helped to effectively manage salt, selenium and other harmful elements toward halting this discharge from reaching the San Joaquin River. The Environmental Protection agency recently characterized this effort as a "success story." Walking away from the land puts people out of work and disrupts the flow of food to our tables at a time when adding jobs and increasing the world's food supply is a necessity.
Conservation is the largest, least expensive and most environmentally sound source of new water, and water is being wasted in every sector of California's economy, according to the Pacific Institute of Oakland.
Coalition response...According to the California Department of Water Resources (California Water Plan), agriculture is not the largest user of available water in California. DWR cites water use in California as: environment, 48%; agriculture, 41%; and urban, 11%. While agricultural and urban users must comply with water management planning requirements, there are no such requirements for managed environmental flows. If Peter Gleick is right we should also be measuring and managing the 48% of the available water that goes to the environment.
Nearly two-thirds of California residents and the majority of agriculture get their water from the Delta and its tributaries, which surround Stockton in an intricate pattern of levees, rivers and farms. But the Delta faces multifaceted environmental problems, which have led to a crisis for fisheries, wildlife and water quality.
Coalition response...It is unfortunate that the author chose to write this article in a manner that includes incorrect information that leaves the reader with a false picture portraying the many efforts currently underway in relation to the Delta. Consider:
1.The BDCP is not charged with "the state's co-equal goals of ecosystem restoration and water reliability." The BDCP is a permitting process for conveyance. The Delta Stewardship Council, created in 2009, is charged with the co-equal goals.
2.Both the BDCP and the Delta Stewardship Council plans are in the draft stages of their respective planning processes. Their work is ongoing and to suggest that either does not include certain documents or processes fails to understand the work schedules by both.
3.The author suggests that exports of water that flows through the Delta may have altered its route to the sea as she writes "which once flowed out to sea..." The Sacramento River still flows to the sea and the water that flows through the Delta is also delivered to 25 million Californians (not just south of the Delta but also to the San Francisco, San Benito and Santa Clara areas) and also to farms to grow the food we rely upon.
4.The SWRCB early report of the flow requirements were publicized with specific instructions from the Legislature that the report did not look at other factors relating to water, such as local uses in areas of origin, the result of water delivered to millions of people and to farms. The report clearly articulates this; yet, many people choose to ignore its narrow scope, instead hanging their hats solely on the specific flow numbers by themselves. The report's accompanying statement strongly recommended that more work needed to be done before final flow requirements could be adopted.
5.Contractors receiving water from the State Water Project pay the associated costs to deliver that water to its eventual point of use. If a contractor is located further south along the Aquaduct than another user, then that contractor must pay the costs for both construction and delivery for that extra distance. This is the major reason that contractors further south along the Aquaduct pay more than their counterparts to the north.
Coalition response...This author goes to great lengths to characterize anyone who disagrees with her as insensitive to the needs of fish and the Delta ecosystem. Farmers and public water agencies south of the Delta have never denied that the Delta ecosystem is in need of restoration or that fish species are suffering. It is in the best interest of these farmers and public water agencies that improvements be made to the Delta ecosystem and its fish populations. Achieving these improvements will bring reliability to a water supply system for 25 million Californians and the farms that grow a safe and healthy food supply that many of us rely upon. This is why they have spent millions of dollars to find solutions.
Rather than dream up a mythical checklist that only serves a biased and opinionated viewpoint, California would be better served to have the energy expended on such efforts redirected toward reaching meaningful water solutions.
Coalition response...This author correctly portrays the "unpredictability" of rainfall patterns in California from one year to the next. Most water experts agree that a multi-pronged effort is needed to balance California's wet and dry years. Like a balanced investment strategy, California needs to maximize conservation, recycling and new storage in its water strategy. Leaving new water storage facilities out of the mix doesn't give us the balance...or security...we need for the future.
Coalition response...Striped bass is a sport fish that was introduced years ago to the Delta and it also has a ferocious appetite. Claiming that "there is almost no scientific data to link striped bass to reduction in native Delta species" ignores the research that has found juvenile salmon inside the stomachs of stripers. The large numbers of splittail and threadfin shad salvaged at the pumps during the past year was expected by State and federal biologists because of the water conditions. These biologists knew that the overall populations would be great, which also supported opinions to deny protected status to these species under the Endangered Species Act.
