|
Sacramento Bee
January 13, 2006
He has a
track record of fighting global warming, reforming workers'
compensation and spending billions on roads, schools and
levees. But can Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuade the
Legislature to invest a few billion dollars on new reservoir
projects in California? Of the many initiatives in the
governor's State of the State speech Tuesday, new reservoirs
elicit near-religious fervor from legislators who love or
loathe them. While it may be hard for the warring water
interests and the Legislature to remain steadfastly agnostic
on the subject for a while, their appropriate starting points
are patience, open minds and closed wallets.
The governor has offered two possible reservoir projects. To
the north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Sites Reservoir
would store water from the Sacramento River, off-stream, in a
barren, bowl-like valley to the west of Maxwell. To the south
on the San Joaquin River, Temperance Flat Dam would impound
close behind the existing Friant Dam northeast of Fresno.
Not all dams are created equal in their potential public
value. Sites Reservoir would be an intriguing tool to better
manage water releases into the Delta. It also could aid flood
control, because water could be shifted into Sites to create
more empty space behind the big dams: Shasta on the Sacramento
River and Oroville on the Feather River.
Temperance Flat, meanwhile, could capture the big flood flows
on the San Joaquin that now go to the Delta and to the sea.
The San Joaquin is a schizophrenic river that runs dry
(because of diversion to agriculture) when it is not flooding
its banks. Temperance Flat would act as a tempering influence
to this dysfunctional system.
Neither reservoir would provide a huge water supply. Because
all the prime dam locations have been plugged already, the new
dams wouldn't have to capture big new gulps as the old ones
do. It's wise to think of the proposed reservoirs as broader
tools for water management rather than as massive new water
sources. And the question is whether the tool is worth the
cost.
The two tools have different flaws. Creating a big reservoir
tied to the Delta water system is questionable until the
governor, the Legislature and wildlife agencies figure out how
to fix the Delta itself, with its dwindling fish populations
and suspect levees. Temperance Flat is a project controlled by
the Bush administration through the federal Bureau of
Reclamation, which hasn't finished studying its prospects.
Besides, how does the state invest in a dam right behind a
federal facility?
Regardless, under the governor's proposal, those who would
stand to gain from the relatively small new water supplies
would have to help pay the relatively large cost of building
either reservoir. In both cases, the local interests that want
the projects need to do more than talk about their support.
This debate could end quickly, as it did last year, with
legislative Democrats dismissing the new dams and Republicans
trumpeting their value unless somebody shows a willingness to
pay the big bucks. Operators are standing by.
|
