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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN class=headline1><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">DELTA ISSUES:<?xml:namespace prefix
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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN class=headline1><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Federal buyout could boost troubled
Delta</SPAN></FONT></B></SPAN><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Stockton</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:City><B><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> Record –
6/15/06<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Warren Lutz,
staff writer</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">STOCKTON</SPAN></FONT></st1:City><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> - The federal
government proposes to buy half of the farmland in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'s largest
water district to stop a decades-long drainage problem, a plan that could
bolster the ailing Delta.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><BR>What
environmentalists and local water agencies can't figure out is why the feds are
renegotiating a contract with the same district to send them even more water,
which they say created the problem in the first place.<BR><BR>"It doesn't make
sense," said Dante Nomellini, an attorney for the Central Delta Water Agency.
"If land is going to be retired, the water ought to be withdrawn."<BR><BR>The
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, however, says its proposal to buy out as much as
300,000 acres in the Westlands Water District would eventually mean less water
to the district, not more.<BR><BR>Westlands, a 600,000-acre swath of farmland
located just east of Interestate 5 that spans Mendota to <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Kettleman</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">City</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, receives enough Delta water for 2.4
million families a year. The problem is that the land drains poorly, leading to
a buildup of water beneath the land's surface that can become contaminated with
salt.<BR><BR>The Bureau of Reclamation is negotiating a contract with the
district that would deliver another 30,000 acre-feet of water to the
district.<BR><BR>But Jeff McCracken, an agency spokesman, said the district
isn't actually asking for more water since it bought the water from another
smaller, local district. "It's water that would have been delivered anyway," he
said.<BR><BR>Westlands, for its part, isn't happy about the idea.<BR><BR>The
district's 600 farms produce about $3.5 billion in agriculture annually,
spokeswoman Sarah Woolf said. Besides potentially cutting the district's farm
income in half, the government's plan would disrupt water-sharing agreements
that local farmers have with each other, she said.<BR><BR>"Hopefully,
Reclamation, Westlands, and other parties involved in the litigation can come to
a better solution," Woolf said.<BR><BR>Since the 1960s, the federal government
has looked at ways to drain farm water from the region, at one point building a
drain to the Delta. But environmental groups complained, and the project was
abandoned after being partially built.<BR><BR>Instead, the water drained at the
Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, where the water-tainted selenium from farm runoff
killed birds and left them with deformities.<BR><BR>The Bureau of Reclamation,
which runs the Central Valley Project, is under a 2000 court order to solve the
issue. Buying the farmland is the leading solution among several options that
the agency considered in an environmental report released last week.<BR><BR>The
bureau faces a tough decision, said Hal Candee, an attorney with the Natural
Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that is opposed to increasing
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Westland</st1:place></st1:City>'s take
of Delta water.<BR><BR>"Will they combine the strategy of land retirement that
is recommended by their own (report) with a reduced water export program, or
will they ignore that recommendation and continue business as usual?" Candee
said.<BR><BR>Environmental groups in general favor decreasing the amount of
water sent south from the Delta, arguing that the exports hurt local water
quality and contribute to the decline of Delta fish.<BR><BR>Nomellini said the
federal government should drain the water to the ocean, since water sent to
Westlands will continue to add to the Valley's growing salt problem. Salt
intrusion from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> contributes to the Delta's poor water
quality, resulting in lower crop yields and lower oxygen levels, which hurt
fish.<BR><BR>But Westlands' drainage problem should have been solved before any
water went there at all, Nomellini said.<BR><BR>"There's got to be some kind of
balance," he said. #<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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