Katrina levee breach dredges up canal debate

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/14/5 | Greg Lucas

[SmithL]

Peripheral project rejected in 1982 -- new proposals met with tepid response

Sacramento -- Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans and fears that a catastrophic break is destined somewhere along the 1,100 miles of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have revived the idea of building a canal to ship water around the delta.

Twenty-three years ago the notion of what was then called the Peripheral Canal spawned a brutal civil war over water between Northern and Southern California capped by a resounding rejection of the concept at the ballot box.

But now the idea is back.

Sobered by New Orleans' experience, California policymakers are newly focused on the delta's deteriorating levees and increasingly aware that even if the money needed is spent to buttress the system, a collapse either by flood or earthquake is inevitable.

"There has been more and more talk about some kind of facility, whatever name you put on it, in the wake of Katrina and concerns about the delta levee system," said Gary Sawyers, a lawyer for public and private water agencies in the San Joaquin Valley.

"A facility like the one that's been talked about could accomplish a lot not just for water, but have significant environmental benefits as well," Sawyers said.

Proposals to siphon water from the Sacramento River, skirt the eastern side of delta and deposit it at the massive pumps near Tracy for delivery south have been around since 1965.

But since 1982, when the Peripheral Canal, estimated at the time to cost $1.3 billion, was overwhelmingly rejected over fears in the north that the south would suck it dry, the state has elected to transfer water exports through the delta rather than around it.

[SmithL]