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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Canal
critics say small one might work ;<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>More
modest option could cost half as much <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>and
deliver 70 percent of the water of a major canal, critics argue<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Contra
Costa Times – 6/2/10<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>By Mike
Taugher<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=bodytext><b><span style='color:black'>Decades of trench warfare over
Delta water might be resolved relatively cheaply and quickly if water agencies
give up their dreams of a massive canal and instead opt for a small tunnel, a
key environmental group says. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>The Planning and Conservation League, a leading
opponent of plans for a peripheral canal, picked up on the idea floated by the
Contra Costa Water District. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>"A couple of years ago Contra Costa talked
about this as a good idea," said Jonas Minton, the league's water policy
analyst. "As we thought about it, we saw there could be benefits for a
smaller-sized tunnel versus a major canal."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Building a tunnel one-fifth the size of the
largest peripheral canal under consideration would cost about half as much
while still delivering about 70 percent of the water, according to Minton's
group, which used figures from engineering reports by the group studying the
canal and the Contra Costa district.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>For environmentalists, Delta farmers and
others, the biggest attraction of a smaller aqueduct is that it would not have
the capacity for the environmental damage of a large one. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>Supporters of a big canal say it would be
operated according to rules meant to protect the Delta. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style='color:black'>But Minton and others say one need only look at
ongoing court battles and attempts in Congress to waive endangered species laws
to see that any guarantee put in writing could be changed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:black'>"What makes it most appealing for many is its sizing would
provide a physical assurance that water would remain in the Delta," Minton
said. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Water
agencies are not convinced. They are evaluating options and expect to release
the results of those kinds of analyses in the next month or so.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The
largest option, a 15,000-cubic-foot-per-second canal, "is still the
presumed leading candidate. But all of the options are being looked at,"
said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager for the State Water
Contractors, an association of mostly urban and suburban water agencies from
the Bay Area to Southern California.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Minton's
group is suggesting a 3,000-cubic-foot-per-second tunnel as a size that
"might be the basis of a real discussion."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>But
King Moon dismissed that as too small.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"We
don't believe a facility of that size would be cost-effective," she said.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>It
also would not satisfy the demand, according to Dan Nelson, executive director
of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which represents western
San Joaquin Valley farm districts.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"Three
thousand doesn't meet our water supply needs," he said. "It (15,000
cubic feet per second) meets our water supply needs."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Nelson
added, however, "I'm encouraged they're seeing there are benefits to a
canal."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Estimates
for a 15,000-cubic-foot-per-second canal run about $9 billion to $10 billion
and a large tunnel is slightly more expensive, about $10 billion to $12
billion, King Moon said.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>By
contrast, Minton said a 3,000-cubic-foot-per-second tunnel could be built for
between $3.8 billion and $5 billion.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>As
the Delta ecosystem collapsed and it became obvious that government plans for
managing water resources were failing, water agencies returned to a decades-old
idea to untangle the state's water needs from the Delta's ecosystem needs:
build a canal to move Sacramento River water from the north around, instead of
through, the Delta.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>For
more than three years, a committee of water agencies, state officials,
biologists, regulators and environmentalists have been trying to craft a way to
make such a canal, or tunnel, work for water users and the Delta ecosystem.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wants a draft plan from the group, called the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan, by this fall.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>More
than three years ago, engineers at the Contra Costa Water District began
exploring whether a smaller option might work, and what they found buried in
the studies being done by the conservation planning group appeared promising.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>A
smaller canal would reduce the environmental threat, cost less and be easier
and quicker to build. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>And,
depending on the requirements to maintain water in the Delta and upstream
rivers, they found that the assumption that a large canal would definitely
deliver far more water might be wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"We
suggested they look very closely at a small facility because it's going to take
a long time," said Greg Gartrell, an assistant general manager at the
district. "We recognized a canal was a 19th century facility.
Three-and-a-half years later, they're getting there. Unfortunately, they
haven't gotten very far on that."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"Adding
more (size)," Gartrell said, "adds lots of cost but not a lot of bang
for the buck."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></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</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
mobile</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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