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<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Dan Walters: Delta Vision not
likely to succeed<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><?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-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Sacramento</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> Bee –
10/27/08<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Dan
Walters<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pacific</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Coast</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>'s largest estuary and a critical
habitat for wildlife, as well as the state's major source of water – but it's in
crisis with deteriorating levees, threats from global warming and earthquakes,
and court-ordered restrictions on pumping due to water quality
problems.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">How often have we been given that dark picture?
Countless times, and twice more this month, once in a report from the Delta
Vision Task Force, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to lay the basis for
new water policy, and again in a state-sponsored scientific study of Delta
issues.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Delta Vision recommends compromises among the countless
competing ideological and economic stakeholders, better conveyance facilities
and a unified system of governing water use, land use and other Delta issues,
replacing dozens of agencies that have pieces of the authority.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">How often have we heard that prescription for the Delta?
Just about as often as we have heard the list of its ills. So does Delta
Vision's vision have any greater chance of succeeding than past efforts,
including one called Cal-Fed that spent about $5 billion only to fail? It would
be nothing short of a miracle for two very salient
reasons.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">One is that the water conflict isn't really about water.
As important as it may be, water is merely the battleground for the larger
debate over how <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> should develop, especially housing,
as its population grows.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">There are other fronts in that battle, most notably
transportation. This year's Senate Bill 375 would redirect transportation
financing away from roads serving tracts of single-family homes and toward mass
transit connected to higher-density development.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Water, however, is an even more powerful factor in
development than transportation. Simply put – and this is now state law – a
housing project cannot proceed without having a specific source of water, and
the Delta's increasing unreliability for water helps major environmental groups
influence development patterns.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">That's why they persuaded voters 26 years ago to reject
a "peripheral canal," which would have improved both the Delta environment and
water supply reliability – the same solution that Delta Vision and other
authorities endorse. And that brings us to the second reason why Delta Vision's
report is unlikely to generate policy.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The state's water stalemate is a symptom of its chronic
inability to deal with issues that arise out of a fast-growing and fast-changing
society. Given the ability of any major stakeholder on any issue to block any
action that it finds noxious (such as the peripheral canal in 1982), a major
water policy advance would require virtual unanimity among dozens of interests.
That's virtually impossible to achieve.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Ergo, don't expect Delta Vision to be any more
successful than past efforts at breaking the stalemate, even as the state
experiences worsening water shortages and the Delta continues to deteriorate.
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><A
href="">http://www.sacbee.com/walters/story/1343871.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>