San Diego water officials not crazy about water plans

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Legislature starts meetings to fix water supply problems | Thursday, October 4, 2007 12:20 AM PDT ∞

State legislators are scheduled today to start debating two multi-billion dollar plans aimed at protecting California's now-threatened water supplies in the hope of putting a bond proposal on the ballot for voter approval next year.

San Diego County water officials have said they don't like either plan -- a $9 billion proposal forwarded on behalf of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a $5.4 billion plan submitted by state Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland -- because they do too little for county residents.

San Diego County Water Authority officials said last week that the biggest problem with both plans was that neither would spend any money to build a canal through or around the ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.

Water officials statewide are still reeling from an August federal court decision that will cut back pumping water south from the delta in 2008 -- a move that could reduce Southern California's delta supplies by 30 percent. Those supplies made up two-thirds of the region's imported water this year.

The Metropolitan Water District, Southern California's main water supplier, said last month the governor's plan does too little to address the delta problems, and said building a canal to separate fish and other environmental problems from the delta water supply was the only answer.

The canal idea is controversial in Northern California. State voters overwhelmingly rejected a canal proposal in 1982.

Officials from Schwarzenegger's office Wednesday defended their plan, which would spend most of its money on dams and reservoirs to increase emergency storage. They said while it would not spend any of its $9 billion to build a canal, it would spend $1.9 billion on environmental work in the delta that would have to be done to get a canal built.

"It addresses the crisis we face today and will increase long term water supply reliability throughout California," spokesman Bill Maile said.

Administration officials said the current plan is to get state officials to come up with a canal plan and have water ratepayers pay to build it.

The Perata plan would spend $2.4 billion on similar delta environmental projects. Perata spokeswoman Linda Gledhill said their plan was "laying the groundwork" to improve the delta, but that the senator felt a canal "was a ways down the road."

The state assembly's Special Committee on Water is scheduled to begin hearings on the plans in Sacramento today.

Local Water Authority officials said last week that they objected to several features in both plans, and said they would lobby both Schwarzenegger and Perata for changes.

Water Authority Assistant General Manager Dennis Cushman told board members Thursday that Schwarzenegger's plan would spend 62 percent of its $9 billion on reservoirs, but none on any near the county.

He said the $5.6 billion Schwarzenegger dedicated to reservoirs would be spent on three projects: the proposed Sites reservoir in Sacramento County, the Los Vaqueros reservoir in Contra Costa County, and the proposed Temperance Flat dam in San Joaquin Valley.

Cushman said the governor's plan wouldn't leave any money for San Diego County to fund its own reservoir project. The agency plans to raise Lakeside's San Vicente dam by 110 feet, giving the San Vicente Reservoir room to store an additional 32.6 billion gallons of water for use during emergency shortages.

Cushman said San Diego County ratepayers would be asked to pony up much of the money for the governor's three projects, even though they would primarily benefit other communities.

Cushman also said the Sites and Temperance Flats projects were "several years" away from being ready to start construction.

He said that could mean voter-approved bond money would sit for years while other projects waited for cash.

On the other hand, the Water Authority doesn't like the Perata plan in part because it offers no money at all for dams and reservoirs.

Other objections cited by the Water Authority included:

Neither plan offered additional funding for two Water Authority canal lining projects in Imperial and Coachella valleys.

Both plans failed to list any San Diego County watersheds in funding set aside to protect and maintain rivers and watersheds around the state.

Water Authority officials said they could eventually support either or both plans if changes were made.

But they said the change they wanted most was some way to "fix" the delta's "plumbing," so that water from Northern California could flow freely to the south.

Board member and Encinitas Mayor Jim Bond, referring to the Schwarzenegger plan's billions for dams and reservoirs, said, "Storage without a way to get the water is useless."

-- Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.