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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:12.0pt;background:white'><span
style='font-size:26.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#007700'>Water
report sparks debate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>Ag-water interests say a recent report recommending a shake-up
of California's water governance is a decent start to a necessary discussion. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>The report by the state-oversight agency Little Hoover
Commission recommended centralizing management of the State Water Project under
a proposed Department of Water Management within the Natural Resources Agency. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>The commission said such a shift would help implement the
policies enacted through last year's landmark water legislation, which created
a new governance structure for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of the
state's conveyance system. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>The state's current water-management structure is "not
aligned in a way that will allow California to adequately manage and plan for
the future, or the full potential of these water reforms," the commission
says in its report. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>"This is a starting point," said Mike Wade, executive
director of the California Farm Water Coalition. "Any time you can look at
(a bureaucracy) of that size and look for ways to improve its efficiency, it's
worth doing." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>Wade also cautioned that no fix is likely to come free of
pitfalls. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>"There is an upside and a downside to any way the structure
changes," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>The report points out that key elements of California's water
planning and management -- water rights accounting and enforcement, flow
recommendations and bond-spending decisions -- are too diffused, spread across
various departments in three state agencies. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>"The state lacks the comprehensive view of water use and
demand needed for meaningful management and long-term planning," the
report says. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>The state's "inability to develop a comprehensive approach
to water management and planning" has resulted in a process whereby
legislative action re-allocates water to environmental needs in unpredictable
patterns, the commission says. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>That inability stems from a lack of funding or political will,
according to the commission. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>While water management will never be free of litigation and
uncertainty, the state can minimize those factors by centralizing its efforts
and making them more consistent, transparent and accountable, the report says. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>"Despite the courts' best efforts, policy driven by
litigation very often reflects the objectives and priorities of those with
access to the courts to the exclusion of those stakeholders who do not,"
it says. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the agricultural Westlands Water
District in the San Joaquin Valley, says the positive and negative points of
centralizing governance require further debate. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
color:#303030'>"If we were to centralize water decisions, that would be
disconcerting because water use is extremely regional," Woolf said. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:
auto;text-align:right;background:white'><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#303030'>-- Wes Sander</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#303030'><o:p></o:p></span></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>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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