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California Drought Deception Emergency?: Water Levels Look Acceptable, but Overpopulation and Fragile Delta Looming could Exacerbate Problem (SanFranciscoChronicle)

Mar.05, 2009 in Drought, Public Works, Water Crisis, Water Industry, Water Management

(March 5, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s declaration of a statewide drought emergency last week had classic comic timing: It’s been pouring ever since. What’s not funny are the governor’s proposals: Expedited water transfers now, which may adversely affect fish and wildlife, and possible mandatory rationing later. Is the drought really that bad?

Some would say no. The Sierra Nevada snowpack has at least 80 percent of its normal snow levels. Precipitation rates in the northern and southern Sierra have reached 90 percent of normal. Experts believe we may have more runoff than last year. January was a punishingly dry month, but February wasn’t, and there are still more storms on the way.

The state is in a drought, no question, but it’s not even close to the worst one we’ve ever had. Also, 2007 and 2008 were years of drought, but water levels during those years weren’t anything to panic about, either. So what’s really going on?

The state Department of Water Resources claims that while the water levels may look acceptable, other factors are exacerbating the drought’s seriousness. There are more people in the state than there were during some of our worst drought years, they say, and the delta is far more fragile than it was then too.

Plus, federal restrictions on water deliveries to protect the delta smelt mean that the State Water Project will be able to allocate only 15 percent of requested water deliveries. This goes a long way toward explaining why state water interests are using such a dire tone to talk about the drought, and renewing their calls for more “water storage” and a peripheral canal.

We’ll be awfully suspicious if Schwarzenegger takes advantage of this drought “emergency” to push those kinds of projects. It’s not because California doesn’t need to be discussing our badly broken water system. It’s because ideas like a peripheral canal and more reservoirs are not necessarily the most fiscally or environmentally sound options to a long-term problem.

To Schwarzenegger’s credit, he has yet to point to these ideas as solutions to the state’s emergency. But there are a lot of vested water interests in this state that will be pushing him to do so. He should remain firm.

(Original Article Here)

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