Posted on 01/02/2009 9:03:28 PM PST by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top water policy advisers have recommended construction begin in 2011 on an aqueduct to carry water around the Delta, a version of the Peripheral Canal that California voters rejected in 1982.
In a report released late Friday, the Delta Vision Committee largely embraced the broad outlines of a report from a task force in October. But the committee of mostly cabinet-level officials stopped short of embracing how the goals of protecting the environment and improving water reliability should be met.
For example, the committee did not take a firm stance on the first concrete recommendation in the October report — that a constitutional amendment or other legislation be passed to ensure that the Delta environment be given equal status with the demands of water supplies.
"We haven't decided yet," said resources secretary Mike Chrisman, adding that the committee nevertheless endorsed the idea of "coequal" status.
Chrisman and the other members of the committee also rejected the idea of creating an agency to oversee the Delta and to use a federal law that empowers the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
Many of the powers that would go to the new agency already exist in state water agencies, Chrisman said.
"Rather than create another layer of government, what we need to do is figure out what we have," he said.
Still, the advisers generally endorsed the recommendations of the Delta Vision Task force, which found that the needs of water users frequently trump environmental considerations, and that as a result of that and other forces, the Delta is no longer sustainable as an ecosystem nor reliable as a key part of the state's water delivery system.
The recommendations generally endorsed by the committee included giving special status to the Delta as a unique place deserving protection for the people who live, work and play there; restoring the ecosystem; promoting water conservation and efficiency; building new water storage and conveyance; and improving preparedness for floods and earthquakes.
The most controversial of those recommendations involve whether to build dams and whether to build a canal around the Delta. Such a canal could improve water supplies from the East Bay to Southern California and prevent fish from being sucked into pump stations.
But it also could reduce the flow of water into the Delta, which could cause the concentration of pollutants to rise.
The committee, like the task force before it, recommended completing studies on proposed dam projects and building a "dual conveyance" system that relies on pumps near Tracy and a canal around the Delta.
The advisers said the governor has the authority to build the peripheral canal, though they added that approval of legislators or voters will be needed if taxpayer funds are to be tapped. It is not entirely clear that public money will be needed because water agencies have expressed a willingness to use ratepayer funds.
Deja Vu.. all over again.
I like C.C. Walker’s plan to dam the SF Bay, making it the largest manmade freshwater lake in the world.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1873413/posts?page=91#91
How To Turn The Deserts Green & Double the Size of the Habitable Earth
Desalination Research And Development ^ | 07/27/07 | Charles Kilmer
Algore c anal.
True that!
Yes it seems to be. This has been high on Arnie's agenda since he was elected the first time. It's funny how when he asked around trying to get some backing on this in the beginning with taxes (oops I meant bonds) and taxpayers said no, California suddenly is drought ridden. The bay area water agencies are firmly behind the canal so they can soak the taxpayers for more money. The water agency for San Jose has a bond measure that runs out in 2010. They have a lot of plans that they say needs to be completed and the 2010 bond money isn’t enough.
California has also passed 2 bond measures in the past to upgrade the delta system. Ernie seems to have misplaced the money for that.
Peripheral Canal for a peripheral Governor.
The damn thing has three possible routes, one of them right past my new home.....arghhhhh. Somebody stop this thing!!!
aanold will be gone soon - and so will his pipedream of a canal to nowhere - if L.A. wants more water for their swimming pools, might I suggest a desalination plant instead of demanding ever more water from northern calif?
This would be an admirable quality, were it not one of the Governator's more asinine ideas.
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