[env-trinity] Stockton Record- Bay-Delta water program thirsts for real power

[Tom Stokely]

Bay-Delta water program thirsts for real power

http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/022004/news/articles/022004-e-2.php

Published Friday, February 20, 2004 

Like a cascading waterfall, California's water problems continue to tumble. 

After four years of trying to bring peace, the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, designed to solve many of the state's disputes, is at a turning point. 

Will it be the conduit for solutions or the cause of collapse? 

It was hard to tell Tuesday during a state Senate Agriculture and Water Committee hearing, where CALFED's effectiveness was challenged. 

Fractious and suspicious water interests have wondered since CALFED's founding if the agency's members would have the authority, courage, mandate or independence to solve deep-seated, long-standing conflicts. 

What progress has been made is threatened. 

State and federal funding problems came first, then the bickering and return of mistrust. 

Last year, frustrated participants, insisting more water from the Delta was their promise, met secretly and devised the so-called Napa Plan. It would suck more water through the giant state-operated pumps near Tracy to midstate agricultural interests and Southern California urban users. 

Delta representatives weren't invited to the meetings. 

Now come the legislative oversight groups such as state Sen. Michael Machado's agriculture and water panel. Machado, D-Linden, listened while charges and claims volleyed back and forth:
* Farm users south of San Joaquin County said the plan is necessary to "move forward with CALFED." Without it, competing interests will return to litigation to solve their differences. 

* Delta defenders asked, "Is this just another water grab?" 

* CALFED Director Patrick Wright admitted this is a "litmus test by which to judge the effectiveness of the program." 

Unless stronger leadership exerts itself, this could be the beginning of the end for the program. 

If renegade groups with narrowly defined interests are able to make decisions independent of CALFED, the agency will lose credibility fast. 

The program needs funds, authority and objectivity. It no longer can operate merely as a forum for competing interests. 

It must be able to drive decision making, exercise judgment and regulate with authority. 

 

 

Our voice 

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* The CALFED agency must be able to regulate with authority.
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