<span id="RDS_global"></span><h1 id="articleTitle" class="articleTitle">Delta water chief confident peripheral canal will be built</h1><a href="http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_17359962">http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_17359962</a><br>
<br><div id="articleByline" class="articleByline">By MIKE TAUGHER - Contra Costa Times</div><div id="articleDate" class="articleDate">Posted: 02/11/2011 12:20:38 AM PST</div><br><span></span><span></span><div class="articleViewerGroup" id="articleViewerGroup" style="border: 0px none;">
<span class="articleEmbeddedViewerBox"></span><span></span><span></span></div><span></span>SACRAMENTO
— The Brown administration's top official on Delta matters said this
week he is confident a new aqueduct can be built to divert water from
the Delta for water users in Southern California.
<p>In his first interview since joining the new administration, Jerry
Meral said events and information developed since he backed the
Peripheral Canal as part of Gov. Jerry Brown's first administration have
only strengthened the case for it.
</p><p>And estimates developed at the end of the Schwarzenegger
administration about the amount of water that could be taken from the
Delta will probably prove to be in the right ballpark, he said. He
cautioned that he was expressing personal convictions and that final
decisions would be made only after formal reviews.
</p><p>"I don't want to prejudge this," Meral said, "but something like a
facility roughly of the size in the earlier documents will be proposed,
will be permitted and be built."
</p><p>Meral, who has a doctorate in zoology, has spent much of his
career working for environmental groups. He was also deputy director of
the state Department of Water Resources from 1975 to 1983, when he
supported the controversial Peripheral Canal that would have skirted the
Delta to move Sacramento River water to the south.
</p><p>Voters statewide killed that plan in 1982, with strong opposition north of the Delta.
</p><p>Now deputy secretary for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Meral
has the distinction of being both a prominent environmentalist and a
strong </p>supporter
of an aqueduct to reduce reliance on south Delta pumps. Many
environmentalists outright oppose the aqueduct while others who are open
to the idea are much more qualified in their support.
<p>An aqueduct is now the centerpiece for the conservation plan. In
recent months, tunnels under the Delta appear to have overtaken a canal
as the preferred choice.
</p><p>By using the aqueduct instead of south Delta pumps, and by
restoring Delta wetlands, supporters hope the plan can satisfy
endangered species laws and end water supply disruptions caused by
environmental problems in the Delta.
</p><p>Much of the project costs, more than $12 billion, would be paid
for by Southern California, San Joaquin Valley farm districts and
others.<br style="clear: both;"></p><br><br>