[env-trinity] Trinity Journal Editorial: Water plan offers no protection for Trinity

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/opinion/editorials/article_18e6934c-e018-11e5-9d03-6fec46b373fb.html
Water plan offers no protection for Trinity
Posted: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 6:15 amSen. Dianne Feinstein’s most recent water legislation, introduced last month, attempts to tackle California’s outdated, much-maligned, semi-dysfunctional, vastly over-allocated water system.The 184-page bill has plenty of things in it to like and dislike.On the plus side, it provides $1.3 billion in federal funds for new reservoirs, desalinization, recycling, storm-water capture and other projects. It calls for modernizing the protocol for operating dams to allow for more thoughtful storage and releases based on real-time data.It allows rural and disadvantaged communities with fewer than 60,000 residents to apply for grants through a new Reclamation program to help stabilize their water supplies. And it seeks to expand the current WaterSense program, seeking out the most efficient water-use appliances for households.But make no mistake, the thrust of this legislation is to move more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to agricultural interests in the San Joaquin Valley. From real-time monitoring of fish populations near the giant Tracy pumps, to guaranteed water deliveries in all but the driest years.What Feinstein’s legislation is lacking is any protections for the areas of origin. There are no minimum reservoirs pools for Trinity Lake, no protection from drastic draw-downs. In fact, you’ll find the word “Trinity” mentioned just once in the entire legislation, under the definition section for Central Valley Project. Any guess where some of the water for these guaranteed water deliveries is going to come from?No one debates the California water system is broken. Completed in the 1970s when California’s population was just 16 million residents, the state now boasts a population of near 40 million.Agriculture continues to expand, often with orchards that require constant water vs. row crops which can be fallowed when water supplies are limited. Resources are so over-allocated it is impossible to get full appropriations to everyone.There’s no one big fix available. Once perfected, desalinization will ultimately solve most of the problem. But that’s a ways off. Until then it will take a number of small steps adding up to improve California’s water situation. But one of those small steps can’t be draining the North State dry.Until some North State — and let’s be parochial here, Trinity — protections are included in the legislation, we can’t support it.
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