[env-trinity] Delta canal alive again?; Legislative whispers suggest controversial plan might return

[Tom Stokely]

Delta canal alive again?; Legislative whispers suggest controversial plan might return

Stockton Record - 2/26/08

By Hank Shaw, staff writer

 

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may issue an executive order jump-starting a controversial plan to build a canal around the Delta, sources familiar with the matter said Monday.

 

Doing so would bypass the Legislature, which is divided over whether such a canal should be built.

 

Schwarzenegger supports the idea of a new way to ship water from the Sacramento River to the giant pumps near Tracy that supply roughly 25 million Californians with their drinking water.

 

Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile neither confirmed nor denied that an executive order is in the works.

 

Opponents, such as Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, say a canal around the Delta would divert the flow of fresh water away from the area of the estuary near Stockton, turning it into a fetid backwater.

 

"I don't think this is helpful at all," said Machado, who represents the part of the Delta that would be affected. 

 

"This executive order is a presumption of a direction without any determination that it is the right direction to go.

 

"It could be a disaster for San Joaquin County."

 

No argument from Dante Nomellini, a Stockton attorney who represents central Delta farmers.

 

Nomellini said Monday he's heard whisperings about an impending executive order.

 

"We'll have to see what it says," he said.

 

He calls the governor's entire Delta Vision process a "sham," saying that state officials have long known they wanted to build a canal.

 

South Delta farmer and engineer Alex Hildebrand also is closely following developments.

 

"They seem to want to get the thing financed and committed before analyzing the consequences," Hildebrand said. "If they're bull-headedly going to go ahead with the plan to build the canal, then we've lost."

 

Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget includes $1.4 million to begin the environmental analysis needed to determine whether to build a peripheral canal.

 

His budget request would create eight positions with a goal of developing potential routes for a canal by 2009. A no-build option would be included.

 

Maile said that plan was written under the assumption that the governor and the Legislature come to a deal on how to proceed with a peripheral canal.

 

If the governor issues the executive order, it would, among other things, direct eight existing employees to do the environmental analysis. The money to pay for it would come from the State Water Project.

 

The argument in support of the move is that the environmental review is so time-consuming and so complex that the state cannot afford to delay much longer.

 

"Nothing is more important to California and its economy than making sure that we have all the water we need now and far into the future," Schwarzenegger said during his weekly radio address Saturday. "There is no more time to waste. We have to plan and build for California's future right now ... because these projects take years to build."

 

But issuing an executive order over the peripheral canal could prove politically dicey, especially just days after the state's water warriors met behind closed doors to talk about a negotiated solution.

 

"What it tends to say is that the meeting was a ruse," Machado said. "He's basically declaring war." #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/A_NEWS/802260317

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