The five water bills provide for a new Delta governing board that could approve a peripheral canal, require water conservation of 20 percent in urban areas, increase monitoring of groundwater, increase penalties for illegally taking water from the Delta and place an $11 billion bond for water projects on the ballot next November.
Local Delta users and advocates have long been mistrustful of efforts in Sacramento to “fix” the Delta, fearing that it’s mostly a ruse to send more water south rather than keep it in the Delta to preserve the ecosystem.
“Obviously, I am disappointed, as should everybody in the Delta,” said Roger Mammon, an Oakley resident and board member of the advocacy organization Restore the Delta. “They are passing all these things about Delta protection, but there’s no enforcement body behind it or penalties. There’s so much to it, it’s kind of hard to track it all. But if you really look at it, there’s a lot of pork in this thing. It looks like there’s a general obligation bond that will be paid for by the general public and the projects will benefit Southern California and the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, which has the most junior water rights in the state.”
Of the bond’s $11 billion, $3 billion is designated for water storage, $2.2 billion for Delta projects such as levee reinforcement and ecosystem restoration, $1.7 billion for watershed conservation throughout the state, $1.4 billion for water management and delivery projects, $1.2 for water recycling and conservation, $1 billion for groundwater cleanup and protection and $455 million for drought relief.
But Mammon is skeptical that local Delta users will see much benefit. Asked whether they will get anything from the water package, he said, “Yeah, they get the shaft.”
In contrast, the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD), which gets all of its water from the Delta, welcomes the legislation, believing it will improve water quality.
“The approval of this water package represents a significant milestone for water policy in California,” said Jennifer Allen, CCWD senior public information specialist. “It doesn’t fix the Delta but provides the framework and financing needed to begin the critical restoration program needed to ensure Delta sustainability. It includes the establishment of state policy that improves Delta water quality, making water supply more reliable, and provides flood control in the Delta. It will also set requirements for flows out of the Delta before more projects can be implemented.”
That includes the proposed peripheral canal, which is planned to stretch 49 miles from just south of Sacramento to next to a new forebay near Clifton Court Forebay south of Byron, drawing up to 15,000 cubic feet of water per second from the Sacramento River, bypassing the rest of the Delta, before pumping it south.
“This legislation in no way authorizes a peripheral canal,” said Allen. “In fact, it lays out a number of hurdles for any canal to move forward, that being the environmental protection specifically.”
There’s a possibility that some of the bond money, if it passes next year, could go toward the expansion of CCWD’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir. The environmental impacts of that proposed expansion are currently being studied.
City officials in East County are cautiously optimistic but also taking a wait-and-see approach while they wade through the details in the hundreds of pages of water legislation.
“The Assembly bills are quite voluminous,” said Paul Eldridge, Brentwood assistant director of public works. “In general there are some things that are really good about the bill and things that could have been better. First and foremost, there’s a comprehensive plan, which we haven’t had in a long time. It takes into account the Delta conveyance, some of the storage issues, the environment. Also it gave some of the groups who were keen on water usage some teeth for water conservation. I think everybody got some of what they wanted, but not everything they wanted.”
Phil Harrington, Antioch’s director of capital improvements and water rights, who recently warned that Antioch is in danger of losing its century-old right to draw water from the San Joaquin River (possibly resulting in a multi-million dollar increase in water costs for residents and businesses), is cautiously optimistic that the legislation will preserve that right.
“They have not said in any part of this bill that existing senior water rights will be impacted,” he said. “There are a lot of caveats to this whole process that could do it. (If) they start to fold in sea-level rise and climate change, that will typically incur processes that could impact your ability (to draw free water from the river). We continue to work and negotiate with the state.”
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