Top State Water Official: "a water supply and delivery crisis the likes of which Californians have not seen in decades"

From Contra Costa Times:
Water crisis has parallels with financial meltdown
By Mike Taugher
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 01/11/2009 03:43:54 PM PST


To understand how California reached its current water crisis, one could look for an analogy in the financial meltdown.

In both cases, credit or water once flowed easily: Four of the five years of highest water deliveries from the Delta's two massive pumping plants were 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

In both cases, lax regulatory oversight was a factor in the collapse that followed: The state Department of Water Resources never obtained an endangered-species permit required under state law, and the two federal permits it and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operated under were invalidated by a judge who found them ineffective and weak.

And in both cases, a bubble formed and burst: By 2007, record pumping levels had contributed to an ecological collapse that in turn led to a court order to slow the pumps.

Although the causes for the collapse of Delta smelt, salmon and other fish species are complex and hotly debated, the fact is that state water managers, given a loose rein by regulators, cranked up pumps in recent years and the fish species that were supposed to be protected — especially Delta smelt — collapsed.

By the time courts stepped in, drastic measures were in order.

Water agencies, under a microscope and facing the threat of further cutbacks and shortages, point to other causes for the Delta's demise. They argue that the collapse is not their fault, or at least not entirely their fault.

They may be partly right. Scientists are investigating the possibility that ammonia discharged from Sacramento's sewer treatment plant might be contributing to the problems, for example, and no one disputes the role invasive clams, plants and fish are having on the delicate ecological balance in the Delta, the West Coast's largest natural estuary.

But the biological analysis that accompanied federal regulators' latest permit, issued last month under court order, concluded that pumping operations lie close to the root of the Delta's problems and the near extinction of Delta smelt.

It emphasized that the pumps not only kill fish directly, they also have a dramatic effect on the Delta's flow of water — the hydrodynamics. And that influences everything.

So, while pollution, introduced species, habitat quality, food availability and other "stressors" are contributing to the Delta's environmental meltdown, "the extent to which these factors adversely affect Delta smelt is related to hydrodynamic conditions in the Delta, which in turn are controlled to a large extent by (state and federal water project) operations," the analysis concluded.

In other words, the other factors that water agencies point to as overlooked contributors to the Delta's demise are, in fact, made worse by agency operations.

The permit has alarmed water agencies because it will cut water deliveries to farms and cities throughout the state below the record levels of recent years. And it comes after two dry years, depleted reservoirs and concern that 2009 could be a third consecutive year without much rain or snow.

Water agencies are also concerned that further restrictions in the coming months might further crimp the water supply. A second permit, to protect salmon and steelhead, is due in March and another Delta fish, longfin smelt, is being considered for listing under state and federal endangered species laws.

As with the financial meltdown, the bursting of a bubble — whether in house prices or water deliveries — is causing pain.

Southern California cities have become more dependent on the Delta as the region's Colorado River supplies were cut due to drought and a 2003 agreement to adhere to the limits set in a 1922 compact with other states.

Meanwhile, major new reservoirs such as the Kern Water Bank near Bakersfield and Diamond Valley lake in Riverside County, which were largely filled with Delta water in the recent boom years, are being drawn down rapidly.

A recent study by a Berkeley consulting firm pegged the cost of restrictions at more than $500 million a year, a cost that could soar to $3 billion in a prolonged drought. Most of that would be felt in Southern California, where water rates could rise and residents see an increased likelihood of water rationing, the study said.

Rationing is possible as early as this summer, depending on the weather, of course. And water agencies are supporting costly fixes that would run into the billions, despite the more than $4 billion spent since 2000 for a plan now largely seen as mostly failed.

How bad is it?

We're looking at what could be "a water supply and delivery crisis the likes of which Californians have not seen in decades," said the state's top water official, Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow.

He might be right.

Mike Taugher covers natural resources. Reach him at 925-943-8257 or mtaugher@bayareanewsgroup.com.