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<p class=MsoNormal><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>U.S.</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> floats
water transfer<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>Valley farmers would clean up tainted land.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>By <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Mark Grossi</st1:PersonName>
and David Whitney / The <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fresno</st1:place></st1:City>
Bee<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>02/16/07 03:55:34<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>The federal government Thursday announced a plan to hand
over part of California's largest water project to west San Joaquin Valley
farmers and let them pay for cleaning up 370,000 acres of land tainted by salty
irrigation drain water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>The
sweeping proposal would settle a decades-old controversy. It also would forgive
almost a half-billion dollars of debt that the farmers owe for construction of
reservoirs, canals and other irrigation facilities that make up the San Luis
Unit of the Central Valley Project. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Without
the deal, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, owner of the project, is on the legal
hook for a cleanup that could cost almost three times the agency's annual
budget -- more than $2.2 billion. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Water
officials who worked on the concept said it seemed sound. Tom Birmingham,
general manager and counsel of the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District, said
farmers would be taking on a tremendous obligation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>"We
think we can undertake the cleanup at a lower cost than the government,"
he said. "But it will still take hundreds of millions of dollars." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>The deal
would end a 15-year lawsuit over the tainted land, but the settlement is still
in the preliminary stages, said Kirk C. Rodgers, the bureau's regional director
in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>In
addition, if the deal is completed between the bureau and farm water officials,
it would have to be approved by Congress. Officials expect the process to be
controversial. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Environmentalists
were cautious about the announcement on Thursday, saying they did not have much
detail. The 20-page description of the arrangement was circulated late Thursday
afternoon. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>"The
concern in the environmental community is that are just going to repeat the
mistakes of the past," said <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fresno</st1:place></st1:City>
resident Lloyd Carter of Save Our Streams. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Carter was
referring to the wildlife disaster at Kesterson Reservoir in western <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Merced</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
in the 1980s. Biologists discovered dead and deformed wildlife at Kesterson
where Westlands irrigation drainage had been pooling for several years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Selenium,
a natural trace element found in abundance on the Valley's west side, had
become highly concentrated at Kesterson. Thousands of migrating birds died, and
thousands more were disfigured. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>The bureau
built the San Luis Drain to send used irrigation water to Kesterson as a
solution to a long-standing drainage problem on the Valley's west side. Layers
of clay beneath the soil surface prevent irrigation drainage from percolating
into the deep underground water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>When
officials were forced to close down Kesterson in the 1980s, the irrigation
drainage had nowhere to go. On many west-side acres, more and more water became
trapped above the shallow clay layers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>The bad
water began rising from the underground until it eventually started to poison
the land surface with salts, affecting hundreds of thousands of acres of land. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Irrigation
districts sued the federal government in the early 1990s, demanding drainage of
the bad water. Federal law obligates officials to provide the drainage. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>An
appellate court in 2000 ordered the bureau to come up with a solution. The
ideas included retiring 300,000 acres of farm land, creating huge ponds to
evaporate the drain water or sending it through a pipeline for ocean dumping
off the coast of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Luis Obispo</st1:place></st1:City>
County. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>A final
solution was supposed to be submitted in federal court today, but officials
said that filing will be delayed probably until next week. A negotiated settlement
based on the concept announced Thursday might be substituted. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>If the
details are worked out, the agreement would form a joint-powers authority among
10 irrigation districts to take over 100 miles of canals, pumping plants,
reservoirs and possibly power plants in the San Luis Unit. The authority would
be responsible for running the water system and devising a cleanup for the
tainted land. The farmers would be forgiven $490 million in debt for
construction of the San Luis Unit. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>As a
sweetener for environmentalists, the agreement also would cap water deliveries
to west-side farmers at 1 million acre-feet a year. This would free 400,000
acre-feet to remain in <st1:place w:st="on">Northern California</st1:place>
reservoirs for other uses. One acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons of
water, or a 12- to 18-month supply for an average family. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Tom Graff,
senior attorney for the national nonprofit Environmental Defense, said the west
Valley should not have been allotted 1.4 million acre-feet of water in the
first place. In many years, the project does not deliver that much water to
farmers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>"They're
giving back 400,000 acre-feet of water?" he asked. "That's no deal.
This a first offer. The real negotiations will take place as Congress looks at
this." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=2 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place>, Chair</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>California Trout,Inc., Advisor</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address tabIndex="0"
style="BACKGROUND-POSITION: left bottom; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(res://ietag.dll/#34/#1001); BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat-x"
w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font size=2 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font size=2
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue;font-style:italic'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><em><i><font face="Times New Roman">bwl3@comcast.net</font></i></em></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue;font-style:italic'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><em><i><font face="Times New Roman">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</font></i></em></a></span></font></i><em><i><font
size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:blue'> </span></font></i></em><em><i><font size=2 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></font></i></em><i><font
size=2 color=blue><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue;font-style:italic'><o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'>http://</span></font></u></i></em><i><font
size=2 color=blue><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue;font-style:italic'><a
href="http://www.fotr.org"><em><i><font face="Times New Roman">www.fotr.org</font></i></em></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=2 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'>http://</span></font></u></i></em><i><font
size=2 color=blue><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue;font-style:italic'><a
href="http://www.caltrout.org"><em><i><font face="Times New Roman">www.caltrout.org</font></i></em></a></span></font></i><i><font
size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:blue;font-style:italic'> </span></font></i><i><font size=2 color=blue><span
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