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<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>An Uncertain Future for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place></span></font></b>
<br>
New Brisbane News <br>
Staff and agencies <br>
18 September, 2005 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By
JULIANA BARBASSA, Sat Sep 17, 4:34 PM ET <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>ANSEL
ADAMS WILDERNESS, Calif. - It begins as fresh snowmelt, streaming from Mount
Ritter‘s gray granite faces into Thousand Island Lake, a bouldered
mirror. The clear blue water spills out through a narrow canyon, and the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> is born. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Certainly
this <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Canyon</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> is the most remarkable in many
ways of all I have entered," Muir wrote in 1873. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Its
waters, trapped behind dams, disappear into California‘s intricate
plumbing system, channels that most maps don‘t show. Diverted river water
nurtures a rich agriculture economy and California‘s unstoppable growth,
but it‘s also at the center of a long-running environmental battle.
Should the flow be released down the old river bed to bring back the salmon
Muir described? How to balance commerce, growth and nature? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
was still pushing westward when Muir arrived. As it edged aside those who had
lived here before, towns sprang up along the railroads, and the first plows cut
through California‘s vast Central Valley. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Agriculture
began driving the state‘s economy, and California was booming. But by the
early 20th century, farmers were pumping their wells dry. Between drought and
the Great Depression, farmers were being forced off their land just as Dust
Bowl migrants were flowing into <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By 1935,
Congress approved emergency funds for the Central Valley Project, with the
massive Friant Dam at its concrete heart and open channels radiating north and
south. Friant‘s construction in 1944 put an end to the farmers‘
concerns, reviving the economy. Towns blossomed along the canals. More than a
million acres of farmland came to life, producing more than 200 crops, from
fruits and vegetables to cotton. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But the
314-foot concrete wall changed the river as well. Most years, less than 5 percent
of the historic flow goes down the old riverbed — just enough to remind
locals of what they lost. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>His
father, Everett, and other downstream farmers watched the San Joaquin‘s
water drop out of reach of their pumps, which were left perched high on the riverbanks
like giant mechanical mosquitoes. They went door to door to raise money for a
lawyer, and 16 years later, their case finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court. Everett Rank borrowed money to go to <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>, but the case was turned down on
a technicality. He was devastated; he suffered a heart attack on his way home
and died. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The <st1:place
w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place> now surrenders to parched gravel just 37
miles below the dam. Where spawning Chinook salmon once ran thick, lizards and
tumbleweed inhabit a riverbed that often goes years without water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
October 2004, a federal judge in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City>
agreed. Angrily protesting, farmers, mayors and businesspeople pointed out that
their towns, jobs and crops have relied on San Joaquin River water for decades,
and that some of the state‘s fastest growing cities are in the Central
Valley. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
conclusion that the Bureau has violated its duty hardly begins to address the
problem of remedies," Judge Lawrence K. Karlton acknowledged. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>How to
balance competing needs for such an essential public resource in the decades
ahead? How to decide the volume of water going downriver? A February trial will
take up such questions — with consequences far beyond the region. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>California
grows 80 percent of America‘s eating oranges. Much of that fruit —
about 15 million 75-pound boxes — passes through nine plants in the town
of Orange Cove, where lush groves cover the surrounding hills as far as the eye
can see. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Growers
like Bailey, who farms with his brother Lee Bailey, know well there‘s
little natural water here. His fruit trees — like Orange Cove‘s
9,255 residents — are sustained by water diverted from the San Joaquin. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Without
it, we‘d just dry up, the farms, the town, everything," Harvey
Bailey said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He
remembers how it was in the 1940s, when so many wells were sunk the shallow
aquifer was going dry. Some towns responded with lawsuits. Saboteurs blew up
pipelines. It was a grim time. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Thanks to
the Friant Dam, the river water now sustains more than 1,500 square miles of
productive farmland on the east side of the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>.
Besides citrus, many of the grapes, almonds and other crops that feed the
country — about $2 billion worth a year — are grown in an area that
gets only 10 inches of rain a year. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Victor
Lopez, a former farm worker and Orange Cove‘s mayor for 30 years, helped
bring the packing plants to town, creating many reliable, though low-paying
jobs. Now he‘s trying to diversify: He went to China to pitch Mexican
food made in Orange Cove, and he‘s talking to Koreans about establishing
a computer-parts assembly plant. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Still, he
said, standing in the town‘s brand new rural development and job training
center: "All investment, all our growth, depends on water — not just
ag. Any business that‘s thinking about coming here, that‘s the
first thing they want to know: Do you have water? It‘s our livelihood,
it‘s everything." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In its
brief run downstream of the dam, herons, egrets and grebes seek out the river,
and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fresno</st1:place></st1:City>
residents come to cool down in the high heat of summer. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But even
this shallow stream has new demands on it: A developer plans to replace
orchards on the riverbank with a new housing complex, the first 180 homes of a
1,646-home subdivision that is expected to grow into the <st1:City w:st="on">new
city</st1:City> of Rio <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mesa</st1:place></st1:City>,
population 100,000. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Water for
the new homes would come from the <st1:place w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place>,
courtesy of decades-old contracts given by the Bureau of Reclamation to
farmers. Opponents say the contracts were never intended for lawns and car
washes. But attorney Tim Jones, representing River Ranch Estates, says
it‘s a case of some water users — environmentalists and farmers
— wanting to limit access to another user, his client. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Such
battles seem inevitable in the years ahead — demographers predict the
Central Valley‘s 5.5 million population will more than double to 12
million or more by 2040, as California‘s population grows from 36.5
million to a 51.5 million. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
San Joaquin is a hard working river, but it can‘t continue to take the
abuse," said Bill Jennings, who ran a tobacco and fishing-gear store until
a large fish kill inspired him to launch DeltaKeeper, an environmental advocacy
group. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In his
small motorboat, pipe protruding from his snowy beard, <st1:City w:st="on">Jennings</st1:City>
looks more pirate than protector of the marshy delta where the <st1:place
w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place> river ends in a maze of channels, turbines
and levees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He
navigates along former wetlands lined with broken concrete and wire mesh, past
pipes that pour Stockton‘s wastewater and urban runoff into the river.
Piles of powdery sulfur used as fertilizer blow from the banks, coating the
surface in a bright yellow film. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For the
rest of its course, the river serves as a drain, taking leftover irrigation
water from farm fields, mixing fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals with
runoff from city streets and golf courses and what little water still flows
beyond the dams on the San Joaquin‘s tributaries. Then it empties into
the delta, where water is pumped south again in an endless loop. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"A
watery landfill," <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jennings</st1:place></st1:City>
called it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Metropolitan Water District, serving 17 million Southern Californians, is
already the largest customer for delta water and has coveted purer San Joaquin
River water, especially since California‘s share of the Colorado River
was cut by 15 percent two years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For
several years now, there have been discussions about a swap that would give <st1:City
w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:City> upriver <st1:place w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place>
water, which now irrigates crops. Farmers on the east side of the valley, in
exchange, would be allowed to use the MWD‘s storage facilities, providing
better access to water in dry years. To make economic sense, the swap would
have to involve at least 100,000 acre feet of the river‘s flow —
enough to serve 200,000 Los Angeles homes per year with pure mountain water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A deal is
still in its beginning stages, but could benefit both sides, said Ron Jacobsma
of the Friant Water Users Authority, the agency that manages the Friant-Kern
canal. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But even
supporters say they‘re cautious. Sending farm water to the big city
smacks of the backroom dealmaking that diverted the Owens River to <st1:City
w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:City>, as portrayed in the movie "<st1:place
w:st="on">Chinatown</st1:place>." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
have to make sure that over time, it‘s not foolish," said Jacobsma. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Though
the deal‘s far from done, a hand-drawn sign posted on a ranch by the
river is already asking the inevitable question: "San Joaquin River Water
— Whose is it? The VALLEY‘s? Or LOS ANGELES‘?" <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>DeltaKeeper
and other environmental groups would add a third stakeholder — native
plants and animals such as the Chinook salmon. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
competing claims will be central when trial on how much water should be
released begins in U.S. District Court in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City>
in February. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Meanwhile,
<st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place> farmers, businesses and small
towns hold urgent meetings, imagining a decision that could threaten their
futures. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>And
Jennings imagines what the river and the delta could be if flushed clean by
snowmelt every year, as it was back when John Muir walked the San
Joaquin‘s banks. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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