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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=4><SPAN class=399004015-08102004>They
call CALFED a "consensus"?</SPAN></FONT></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=4><SPAN
class=399004015-08102004></SPAN></FONT></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=4><SPAN
class=399004015-08102004>OPERATIONS</SPAN></FONT></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=4><SPAN
class=399004015-08102004></SPAN>Delta water transfer debated
</FONT></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Fisherman and environmentalists pan
proposed plans to send water down south </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Associated Press -
10/7/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>By Don Thompson, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>SACRAMENTO -- A day after Congress sent President Bush ambitious
legislation to restore California's vulnerable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
state and federal water regulators pushed ahead with plans to divert more CalFed
water to Southern California despite concerns over endangered wildlife.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water
Resources want to integrate their parallel reservoir and pumping systems and
sign long-term water contracts with rural irrigation districts and urban water
districts. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>That could alter everything from the amount of scarce water
flowing to thirsty crops and parched Southern California, to water available for
fish in the Delta and in rivers from the American in Sacramento to the Trinity
and Klamath in northwestern California. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>California's two Democratic U.S. senators and a half-dozen
Democratic House members, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, have
called for delays and more information before water regulators act. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But the agencies continued with an informational hearing that
played to a packed auditorium and went an hour overtime Thursday, though
officials promised nothing that will endanger wildlife will be finalized without
a complete environmental review. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"Why wasn't this run through CalFed? Why have a CalFed?"
wondered Dennis O'Connor, consultant to the state Senate Committee on
Agriculture and Water Resources, referring to what is formally known as the
California Federal Bay-Delta Program authorized Wednesday by Congress.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The agencies have been working with CalFed, said Susan Ramos,
Reclamation's assistant regional director. But the pending water contracts that
would send more water flowing to Los Angeles and San Diego were hammered out in
a series of closed-door sessions in Napa in July 2003. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The contracts lasting 25 to 40 years would have a "massive
impact" on California's complex circulatory system, in which water from Northern
California is channeled through the Delta and pumped south over the Tehachapi
Mountains, said Hamilton Candee, senior attorney for the National Resources
Defense Council. One agreement would send 27 percent more water through the
state's Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Stockton. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"It's what's driving this train," Candee said. "Somebody wants
to get those contracts signed by the end of the year" before a potential change
in administrations. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Fishing organizations complained the proposals would hurt
vulnerable stocks, potentially endangering fall run salmon returning up the
American River. More than 180,000 have died the last three years, complained
activist Dan Bacher, eclipsing the 68,000 killed in the massive 2002 Klamath
River die-off. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The problem is an age-old one in California, said Mark Rockwell,
vice president for conservation for the Northern California Federation of Fly
Fisherman. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"There isn't enough water to go around -- and if there is it
it's not at the right temperature" to sustain fish, Rockwell said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Regulators and critics now are both waiting for an environmental
assessment of the dangers from the pending water agreements to salmon and other
endangered fish if more Northern California water is pumped through the Delta to
the southern half of the state. #</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><EM><STRONG>On the Net: <SPAN class=399004015-08102004>
</SPAN>Read the relevant Bureau of Reclamation documents at
</STRONG></EM></FONT><A
href="outbind://18/www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/index.html"><U><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT
size=4><EM><STRONG>www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/index.html</STRONG></EM></FONT></U></FONT></A><FONT
size=4><EM><STRONG>.</STRONG></EM> </FONT></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2454077,00.html#"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff><FONT
size=4>http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2454077,00.html#</FONT></U></FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>CALFED PROGRAM</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>CalFed bill hailed by water users,
criticized by environmentalists</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Associated Press<SPAN
class=399004015-08102004> - 10/7/04</SPAN></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By B<SPAN
class=399004015-08102004>rian Melley, staff
writer</SPAN></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>SACRAMENTO - A joint federal and state water program intended to
unite farmers, city folk and nature lovers was hailed by water users Thursday,
but criticized by environmentalists who said a congressional reauthorization
bill did not do enough to improve habitat.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>President Bush is expected to sign the $395 million California
Federal Bay-Delta Program bill passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives
that aims to restore the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The system feeds
the nation's most productive farm land while providing drinking water to 22
million Californians.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The bill, which has been the subject of six years of debate and
negotiations and has shrunken from once seeking more than $1 billion,
reauthorizes the so-called CalFed program that was conceived to improve water
supply and quality and save threatened wildlife.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Tim Quinn, a vice president for Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California serving 18 million people, called the bill historic for
making peace among factions who have long fought over the state's limited water
supply.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Farmers throughout the Central Valley and water agencies in the
San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California were all united in their support
of the bill, which had support from both parties in the state's congressional
delegation, he said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>''Californians have never been this united on how to manage
their water in the future,'' Quinn said. ''It's a turning point.''</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Environmental groups, however, said the bill was flawed because
it doesn't authorize additional money for ecosystem restoration, said Barry
Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Nelson said money in the program once devoted to bringing back
salmon can now be diverted to buying water. He also said rigorous reporting
required for people selling land to federal agencies to restore habitat will
make it cumbersome and slow improvements.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>''It's painfully ironic that a bill that's supposed to promote
restoration is interfering with restoration activities,'' Nelson
said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>CalFed was started a decade ago as a long-term multibillion
project bringing the first major changes to California's water systems since the
1960s.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The state, the federal government and water users are supposed
to pay a third each for the program, but Congress has not reauthorized the bill,
costing the state millions in the past few years.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Under the bill passed Wednesday, $90 million will be spent to
reconstruct levees and several major storage projects will be studied. It will
also speed approval of 49 water recycling projects and ensure water for
fisheries.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Water flows will increase to Southern California, and the
feasibility of restoring the Salton Sea, which is suffering from increasing
salinity, will be studied.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Supporters of the bill said it will increase the flexibility to
move water through a system of canals, reservoirs and the delta, an intricate
web of levees and rivers where the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers join and
flow to San Francisco Bay.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>''It balances the program as it was designed to be balanced,''
said Jeff McCracken of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. ''The balance now is it's
going to go ahead and look at water supply and continue to look at restoration.
It's always looked at restoration.''</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Carl Zichella of the Sierra Club said the balance now tilts in
favor of large water users. He said environmental rules to save threatened and
endangered species were required to offset years of damage from dams and
reservoirs.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>''The ability to save ecosystems,'' he said, ''I think is in
question now.''</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The California Bay-Delta Authority that coordinates the program
chose not to comment on criticism.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>''It's not our job to debate stakeholders in the program,'' said
spokesman Keith Coolidge.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District that
consists of nearly 600,000 acres of arid farmland in the San Joaquin Valley,
said the bill was a breakthrough that would improve conditions for farmers and
other users.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>If implemented as originally envisioned, he said the program has
the potential to eliminate the state's longtime water conflicts. But he added
that some groups will probably always be opposed to pumping more water south of
the delta.<SPAN class=399004015-08102004>#</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9868152.htm"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff
size=4>http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9868152.htm</U></FONT></A></P>
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