Water supply gets less (and more) secure

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
Judge's ruling favors fish over SoCal supplies, but Colorado River deal would protect region's water | Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:08 PM PST ∞

A federal judge's latest ruling means that Southern California's water supplies from the north are still threatened with a 30 percent cut, but a historic new deal will safeguard the region's Colorado River supplies, officials said Wednesday.

To protect an endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled in August and again late Tuesday that the state will have to cut back pumping water from Northern California.

State and regional water officials said Wednesday that they would need more time to review the latest ruling, but that it could still cut Southern California's supplies of Northern California rainfall and snowmelt by up to 30 percent. The judge's ruling could become final next week.

Meanwhile, water officials from three states were flocking to Las Vegas this week to sign a first drought-allocation plan for the Colorado River. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is scheduled to sign the deal in Las Vegas today.

The accord would all but guarantee that Southern California's Colorado River supplies won't be cut through 2026, even if the river's eight-year drought continues, according to Metropolitan Water District officials.

The new accord is an agreement among three Western states -- California, Arizona and Nevada -- that will create federal guidelines for how the states would "share the pain" if the river's drought continued to the point that the Interior Department would require water rationing.

The agreement would also eventually allow Metropolitan, Southern California's main water supplier, to store water in Nevada's mammoth Lake Mead as a hedge against future supply shortages.

It took 2 1/2 years for the states to negotiate the deal, and is expected to ward off lawsuits that could come as fast-growing states fight over the river's supplies in increasingly dry times.

Metropolitan Assistant Manager Roger Patterson said Tuesday that under the terms of the agreement, Arizona and Nevada would take the first cuts in supplies if water levels in Lake Mead shrink another 36 feet from its already depleted levels. Lake Mead is the largest man-made reservoir in the United States.

Patterson said California's supplies could eventually be cut, but it would be unlikely because Mead's levels would have to shrink to extremely low levels.

"There is no trigger point for California unless you had a very unusual drought," he said.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan and state Department of Water Resources officials said they were not surprised by the judge's draft ruling.

Water agencies and the Natural Resources Defense Council have been waiting for Wanger's written decision since he gave them a verbal ruling in August. The defense council is the environmental group that sued the state to protect the delta smelt. The smelt is the endangered fish that was being killed, in part, by the massive, state-operated delta pumps that send water to Central and Southern California.

Defense council officials said Wednesday that they would not comment on the draft ruling.

Metropolitan's general manager, Jeff Kightlinger -- one of the many water leaders who was headed to Nevada for the Colorado River deal signing -- issued a written statement Wednesday. It said the ruling would mean that Southern Californians would have to continue to cut their water use to stretch supplies.

The judge's ruling could mean less than a 30 percent cut of Southern California's supplies, said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the department of water resources. But he said it would depend on how much rain and snow Northern California and the Sierras get this winter.

"The order he (Wanger) gave us is still going to have a pretty significant impact, depending upon how much water is in the system," he said.

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

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