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<h1><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Paper Water<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>How dry is my valley? Farms
short on water<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=byline><b><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'>Matt Jenkins<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=date><b><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'>Sunday, April 11,
2010<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/11/INOA1CQGVF.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:blue;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=254 height=700 id="Picture_x0020_26"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2010/04/09/ba-insight11_jen_SFCG1270785758.jpg"></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><img
border=0 width=17 height=10 id="Picture_x0020_27"
src="cid:image002.gif@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/article/articlebox_img_bg.gif"></span><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.0pt'><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222;
text-transform:uppercase'>Images<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/11/INOA1CQGVF.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#015660;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="Picture_x0020_29"
src="cid:image003.gif@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2010/04/09_t/ba-insight11_jen_SFCG1270785758_t.gif"></span></a><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/11/INOA1CQGVF.DTL&o=1"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#015660;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="Picture_x0020_30"
src="cid:image004.gif@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="Operations manager Denny Dawley works at the Colusa Count..."></span></a><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/11/INOA1CQGVF.DTL&o=2"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#015660;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="Picture_x0020_31"
src="cid:image005.gif@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="Drawing water from the Sacramento River, the Red Bluff Di..."></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/04/11/INOA1CQGVF.DTL&o="><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:windowtext;
text-decoration:none'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#015660'><img border=0 width=7 height=7 id="Picture_x0020_32"
src="cid:image006.gif@01CAD963.F532FE70"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/plus-green.gif"></span></span><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;color:#015660;text-decoration:none'>View Larger Images</span></a>
</span><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>On a crisp, brilliant day at the end of March,
the farms near the Sacramento Valley town of Arbuckle were bursting with green
and looked as if they'd popped straight off a fruit-crate label. A few wet
clouds hung over the Coast Range, and Doug Griffin kept a wary eye on them,
hoping they would bring more water. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>"If you're not going to get it through the
rain and the good Lord," said Griffin, a 53-year-old almond grower,
"then you're gonna buy it from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Lately, though, even the federal government
hasn't been able to make up for what the heavens have failed to provide. For
the past two years, Griffin and farmers in 17 Sacramento Valley irrigation
districts have received only 40 percent of the amount of water they hold
contracts for with the federal government. With California's water supplies
squeezed by drought, farmers saw their supplies cut as the state and federal
governments pumped Sacramento River water to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley,
south of the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>To cover their shortfall, the farmers served by
the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority have spent roughly $9 million over the past
two years to buy water from growers with better rights; some farmers had to
idle their land.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>"Without water, we don't have much to work
with," Griffin said. "We literally went from being the Maytag water
district to the district from hell."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>This February, after several fruitless rounds
of arguing for more water, the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority sued the Bureau of
Reclamation to restore its full deliveries. The authority's legal challenge
relies on an obscure provision in state law known as the area-of-origin
protections, which say that no water project can deprive an area "wherein
water originates" of water "reasonably required to adequately
supply" that area. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>But the farmers' fight for water from the
federal government is, in fact, a symptom of a much larger problem, the cause
of which lies largely with the state. A year and a half ago, California's
primary water-rights regulator, the State Water Resources Control Board,
released a report showing that it has parceled out rights to far more water in
the Central Valley than actually exists. <span style='background:yellow;
mso-highlight:yellow'>The amount for which farmers, cities and other users hold
rights - colloquially known as "paper water" - is a whopping 8.4
times the valley's average natural streamflow.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>How it came to be that way stems from a mix of
miscalculation, unrealized dreams - and a hefty dose of calculated risk-taking.
Water planners decades ago believed there was more water in the state's rivers
than there actually is. But the state also issued rights to water it intended
to siphon from the "wild rivers," such as the Smith and the Eel, along
the north coast. Since the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1972,
that water has been off-limits. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>More controversially, the state board has a
constitutional mandate to ensure that "the water resources of the State be
put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable." By
overbooking water, the state has been able to ensure that every last available
drop is put to work. Yet in times of drought, that overextension creates a lot
of losers, in both the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>The current drought, compounded by water
restrictions to protect endangered species, is pitting farmers against each
other. "We're certainly sympathetic to their needs down south,"
Griffin said, referring to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, many of whose
water deliveries have been drastically cut back in the past two years, as well.
"But we need to be made whole." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>Tom
Howard is the chief deputy director of the Water Resources Control Board, and
he said the 8.4 paper-to-wet-water ratio is grossly misleading. "It's not
an accurate number," he said. "But people grab onto that and say, 'My
God, look what a problem we've created.'</span><span style='color:black'>
" <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>Yet even
those who say the number is wildly inaccurate have failed to offer a more
precise alternative.</span><span style='color:black'> To be sure, at least half
the paper water is double-counted: Hydroelectric dams require a water right,
but they don't actually consume any of the water they use. Moreover, many water
users don't use the full amount of water for which they hold permits. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Beyond that, though, the number is more
difficult to parse. "Comparing face value and (actual) use is just
bogus," said Andy Sawyer, the state board's assistant chief counsel.
"But once you get through those exaggerated, phony numbers, it is true
that streams are overcommitted."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow'>Still,
Sawyer said, water cutbacks are part of the bargain that more recent,
"junior" users made to get water rights. "If you take the
position that people should be allowed to use water when it's there, you have
to accept the consequence that people are going to have to cut back when it's
not," he said. "The promise to deliver water doesn't include a
promise to make it rain."</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Late last month, a grower named Steve Dennis
rolled his Ford alongside the Tehama-Colusa Canal. About 180 miles to the
south, across the delta, lay the Westlands Water District, the most powerful
farming stronghold in the San Joaquin Valley. Last year, Westlands received
only 10 percent of its contracted water, and the district's manager, Tom
Birmingham, has been tirelessly fighting for more. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Dennis didn't relish the notion, but he
recognized that he and his neighbors soon might be squared off in court against
Birmingham. Still, he said, "he doesn't blame us for doing what we're
doing. He would do the same thing."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>As it happened, Birmingham has spent two weeks
hunkered down in a federal courtroom in Fresno, arguing another case that seeks
water for the farmers in his district. "Everyone is looking to challenge
anything right now, because there's a limited supply for everyone," said Westlands
spokeswoman Sarah Woolf. "Everyone is concerned about, 'Are we going to
get to next year?' "<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>But back alongside the canal, Dennis seemed to
think the fight is as much about the clash of water needs over the long term as
it is about making it through this year. "We're just trying to get our
share of what is left," he said. "We have to protect ourselves,
because if we don't, they're gonna take it. It's that simple."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<h3><u><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Local sources for local needs
<o:p></o:p></span></u></h3>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>In the early 1900s, Los Angeles water boss
William Mulholland quietly bought up ranches and water rights in the Owens
Valley and then "dewatered" the area by siphoning its water 223 miles
to Southern California. The incident so haunted the collective California
psyche that in the 1930s, the Legislature passed what has become known as the
area-of-origin statute - essentially a guarantee that any area's reasonable
need for its own water will be met before water can be exported elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>That proviso proved crucial to persuading
farmers in the Sacramento Valley to sign on to plans for the Central Valley
Project, which taps water from the Sacramento River in large part for farms in
the San Joaquin Valley. "The promise was, 'Your local resources will go to
meet your local needs before we export water,' " said Jeff Sutton, the
general manager of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority. Now, after back-to-back
years when Sacramento Valley farmers received just 40 percent of their water
contracts while water was pumped south, Sutton said, "that promise is not
being kept."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Over three-quarters of a century, California
has received enough water that the area-of-origin protections have for the most
part languished on the books. "For years, it was kind of a dead
letter," said Joseph Sax, a professor emeritus of the UC Berkeley School
of Law and one of the leading minds of California water law. "The only
time people thought about them was in law school classes." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>The suit has the potential to reduce water
deliveries to farms in the San Joaquin Valley, but it could ultimately threaten
an ever bigger shakeup of California water. The Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California, which supplies 19 million people in Los Angeles and San
Diego, now gets about 60 percent of its water from areas in the northern half
of the state that could be protected by the statute. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><em><b><span style='color:black'>- Matt Jenkins</span></b></em><b><span
style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=dtlcomment><b><span style='color:black'>Matt Jenkins of Berkeley
writes frequently on water politics and is a contributing editor to High
Country News</span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'>.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land/fax (call first to fax)</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
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