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<H1>Less Delta water means dry times</H1>
<H2>Calls to redesign the estuary follow order to curtail pumping.</H2>
<H3>By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writers</H3>
<P>Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 6, 2007<BR>Story appeared in MAIN
NEWS section, Page A1</P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica,sans-serif">
<P>Water rationing. Idled farmland. Hundreds of millions of dollars in economic
losses. Dry times lie ahead for a state struggling to serve up more water from a
tapped-out ecosystem.</P>
<P>A judge's order last Friday is expected to require state and federal agencies
to pump one-third less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.</P>
<P>The estuary provides water to 23 million Californians and about 5 million
acres of farmland. </P>
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<P>The historic order rocked cities, farmers and water officials statewide, who
fear that shortages are ahead.</P>
<P>"It's our quality of life that is at stake and the regional economy as well,"
said Greg Zlotnick, special counsel for the Santa Clara Valley Water District,
which provides Delta water to 1.7 million people in Silicon Valley.</P>
<P>On Wednesday, a powerful alliance of water interests used that concern to
press hard for a package of politically touchy solutions: new dams and a canal
around the Delta favored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.</P>
<P>"This crisis is indefinite," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the
Association of California Water Agencies. "It will last until we implement a
comprehensive program, such as the governor has outlined."</P>
<P>Stephen Patricio, chairman of the Western Growers Association, estimated
economic effects in the farm sector from the court order could reach $400
million next year -- if the state is blessed with normal rainfall.</P>
<P>Zlotnick said his agency may have to reduce the amount of water projected to
be available for new housing and commercial development.</P>
<P>While some blamed the judge and environmental laws for causing the cutbacks,
others said it was only a matter of time.</P>
<P>Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said California has long relied too heavily
on the Delta as a water supply even as danger signs mounted. A longtime Delta
advocate, he said the solution involves prioritizing how we use water and
adopting aggressive conservation measures.</P>
<P>"The day of reckoning has arrived," Miller said. "Now we have an opportunity
to work within the environmental realities of the Delta and see if we can work
out how we can operate this system and protect it at the same time."</P>
<P>The court ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno,
came in a case brought against state and federal water officials by the Natural
Resources Defense Council and three other environmental groups.</P>
<P>Wanger found that the agencies' plan for operating the Delta failed to
adequately consider harm to the fragile Delta smelt, a finger-length fish that
is a vital indicator of the estuary's health.</P>
<P>The judge called for pumping reductions from December through June sufficient
to protect the smelt. He gave the parties 50 days to translate his verbal order
into a set of new operating rules.</P>
<P>That order will stand until late next year, when a new set of rules, already
in the works, are expected to be finished. But the new rules are likely to
continue pumping reductions.</P>
<P>Officials at Wednesday's press conference said they were still analyzing the
court decision to understand its effect. Lester Snow, director of the state
Department of Water Resources, said it will mean a cutback to Delta water users
of between 12 percent and 37 percent.</P>
<P>"We're going to have to call for unprecedented levels of conservation from
our 18 million customers," said Roger Patterson, assistant general manager of
the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest urban
consumer of Delta water.</P>
<P>Not everyone sees the pumping cutbacks as a calamity.</P>
<P>Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit think tank in
Oakland, said the pumping slowdown represents a prime opportunity to reconsider
how water is used in California.</P>
<P>Gleick said it is critical for urban and agricultural interests to use water
more efficiently.</P>
<P>"There's enough water for healthy agriculture and a healthy economy, but
there's not enough to waste or use inefficiently," he said.</P>
<P>He gave numerous examples: Replace 6-gallon-per-flush toilets with 1.6-gallon
models and top-loading washing machines with more efficient front-loaders. Use
precision sprinklers to irrigate fields and shift from growing crops that use
lots of water to those that require less.</P>
<P>Gleick noted that four farming staples -- rice, cotton, alfalfa and irrigated
pasture -- use about half of the agricultural water in the state but produce a
small fraction of agricultural income.</P>
<P>"I'm not saying, 'Don't grow cotton or alfalfa' " Gleick said, "but it is
worth discussing how much we grow. These have been taboo discussions in the
past."</P>
<P>Others warned against rushing into solutions that may have long-term
consequences.</P>
<P>"What we're seeing here is the tip of the iceberg with regard to the
long-term decay of the Delta," said Jay Lund, a professor of civil and
environmental engineering at UC Davis. "We have to be very thoughtful about how
we redesign the Delta."</P>
<P>The judge's ruling addresses only one of the identified threats to the Delta:
water export pumping.</P>
<P>Other threats remain, including water contamination caused by farming and
urbanizing, weak levees and aggressive invasive species that have altered the
food supply available to native species such as smelt.</P>
<P>Part of the solution may be a new structure to move Sacramento River water
into the export pumps without harming smelt.</P>
<P>Options for such a "conveyance" structure include armoring existing levees
through the center of the Delta and restoring surrounding areas, or building a
peripheral canal to isolate export water and carry it around the Delta.</P>
<P>Schwarzenegger has proposed a $5.9 billion bond measure to build two new
reservoirs and a Delta water conveyance structure. Senate Democratic leader Don
Perata of Oakland instead offers a $5 billion bond that also funds conveyance,
but focuses on Delta restoration rather than dams.</P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>