Water Plan, Then Canal?

Something has to be done about the failing water system in California. There will be pain but we can't keep putting it off.

Water plan seen as prelude to canal

John Howard and Anthony York
Capitol Weekly
October 26, 2009

Two powerful California water agencies, the Westlands Water District in the Central Valley and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, support a legislative water compromise in part because they believe it brings the Peripheral Canal closer to reality.

The agencies themselves say they would pay for the huge project, using the money from the rate increases paid by their customers.

"All the agencies will share the cost of conveyance," said MWD's Jeff Kightlinger, which he said could cost between $6 billion and $12 billion. He testified before a legislative hearing on the water proposal. Rate hikes could total 10 percent to 12 percent for urban and industrial users, and perhaps 50 percent for agricultural customers, he said. General agreeement has been reached among the water agencies that a canal is needed, he added.

But environmentalists who support the legislation authored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the bill does not give a green-light to construction of the canal, or any other capital projects. The bill focuses on governance of the delta, environmental safeguards, water supply reliability and other issues. Funding for those issues, perhaps in the $9 billion range, will be addressed separately, he said.

"The bill does not authorize a canal," Ann Notthoff of the Natural Resources Defense Council testified Monday at a legislative hearing.

The divergence reflects the fragile nature of the group supporting the water-reform package, which includes environmentalists and others long opposed to a canal, or conveyance. Whether or not the bill actually eases the possibility of a canal is apparently still a matter of dispute among some coalition members.

Read on.