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CENTRAL VALLEY ISSUES:

Editorial: River fishery flows, ag can co-exist

Fresno Bee – 6/21/05

By Lloyd Carter, director of the conservation group Revive the San Joaquin

I testified at the recent hearing of the House Subcommittee on Water that a restored San Joaquin River can co-exist with agriculture. I believe that because the Merced , Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers already have healthy fisheries, including salmon runs, and still provide water for farming and urban interests. This can also be done on the San Joaquin , fairly and reasonably.

I testified as a director of a new Fresno group, Revive the San Joaquin, which seeks to find common ground between public trust interests in the river and the needs of east side growers from Madera to Kern counties (the "Friant Unit") who now get well over 90% of the river's annual flow through federal diversion canals at Friant Dam.

Daunting task

New subcommittee chairman George Radanovich, the Mariposa congressman, knows he needs to build a consensus of stakeholders and the California congressional delegation if he hopes to get a billion-dollar dam built at Temperance Flat above Friant Dam. His task won't be easy. Friant farmers battle among themselves almost as frequently as they attack environmentalists.

But subcommittee members need to understand a new dam will only yield a small percentage of the water the Valley will need 25 years from now and that much less expensive solutions are available and are quicker to implement. Here are some facts I shared with the subcommittee:

Flows down the river will not only restore a fishery, but recharge the overdrafted aquifer on the Valley floor, improve Delta drinking water quality for 22 million Californians and provide many recreational (fishing, boating, camping, swimming) and economic opportunities (jobs) in a quickly urbanizing Valley.

It is simply not true that water flowing past Friant Dam is "wasted" or "lost." The only loss is the first use of the water by those now using it. All interests downstream will benefit. The state aqueduct can recycle to the South Valley much of the water that will flow downriver.

Seventy miles of riverbed on the Valley floor are normally dry. The lower river is badly polluted by agricultural and urban runoff which degrades the Delta.

Fresno County , which is facing a crisis water shortage in its foothill and mountain areas, gets only 8% of the river's flow in an average year, even though many mountain communities are a stone's throw from San Joaquin tributaries and under the state's area-of-origin laws are entitled to first use of the river. Seventy-five percent of the river's diversions now go to Kern and Tulare counties, which aren't even in the watershed. North Valley counties on the river get zero flow. Will Fresno County assert its priority right?

Predictions of economic "catastrophe" for the Valley if the San Joaquin 's fishery flows are restored are overstated because three-fourths of Valley agriculture gets its water from different rivers.

There was one voice at the hearing that could not be ignored. Grace Napolitano of Los Angeles County , ranking Democrat on the committee, reminded her Valley colleagues that any new storage proposals will need the support of her Southern California colleagues. She also knows America needs $400 billion over the next 20 years to repair its deteriorating water infrastructure and protection of existing drinking supplies will be the top priority.

Napolitano's official Web site says she is an avid promoter of conservation, water recycling, desalination, and sound groundwater management and storage. Those are the same recommendations the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) makes in the 2005 update of the California Water Plan. New dams, because of their controversy, great expense and lack of good sites, are down the DWR list. By 2030, California will have added 12 million people with projections as high as 4 million acre-feet for new storage needed.

Hardly the answer

Everyone agrees we need storage. But above ground or underground? A Temperance Flat dam, even if approved, is at least 10 and probably 20 years away. It will generate only 200,000 acre-feet of additional water that may cost as much as $300 to 500 an acre-foot, far too high for farmers unless already overburdened taxpayers subsidize the cost.

Last week, I had lunch with some officials from Friant water districts who set me straight on some matters I was misinformed on. They listened to what I had to say about the public trust interest in a restored river.

I found them practical, solution-oriented, supportive of win-win water exchanges and already engaged in groundwater banking. They understand that fishery flows may be re-established in the river. There was no name-calling or demonizing. Even water wars can have peace talks. 

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/10729700p-11510419c.html