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Contra Costa Times
September 4, 2007
THE
LATEST PLAN to preserve the Delta while delivering water to 25
million Californians received deserved praise from the blue
ribbon panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. However,
its short-term remedies are more likely to win approval than
its long-term considerations.
The group of 40 divergent interest groups calls for an
emergency response plan for the Delta in case of a levee
failure. Also, it seeks rock barriers in the Delta to separate
water supply channels from sensitive habitat. These are not
controversial suggestions and should be quickly implemented.
The most contentious proposal is a call for an aggressive
study to determine the costs and feasibility of building an
aqueduct around the Delta. The study would include immediately
building temporary dams in Delta rivers to study whether an
aqueduct should be built.
An aqueduct is controversial because of legitimate fears that
the Delta would not receive enough fresh water to maintain its
ecological balance. Former state legislator Phil Isenberg,
head of the study panel, said the water experts always take
priority over the environment.
Sunne McPeak, former Contra Costa County supervisor and
Cabinet secretary under Schwarzenegger, is dissatisfied with
the lack of plans to release enough fresh water into the Delta
if levees fail.
It is important for progress to be made quickly in exporting
water in an environmentally safe manner. Water officials face
legal problems because of a court ruling the pumping lacked
state environmental permits. Also, a court ruled that the
state water agency's federal endangered species permit was
illegal.
There is no time for delay in finding at least a temporary
solution on Delta water. Then consideration of an aqueduct or
new reservoir must go forward.
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