SAN DIEGO Gov. Gray Davis pledged Friday to work to prevent 30billion gallons of water intended for Southern California from going to waste, one week after his administration said it would allow the water to flow into the Pacific Ocean.
Posted on 06/14/2003 3:43:11 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
State: Governor working to get agencies to agree to deal over Colorado River, keep 30 billion gallons.
SAN DIEGO Gov. Gray Davis pledged Friday to work to prevent 30billion gallons of water intended for Southern California from going to waste, one week after his administration said it would allow the water to flow into the Pacific Ocean.
The governor said he would work with the U.S. Interior Department to salvage the $10million worth of water acquired by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "I pledge to you the full cooperation of the State of California,' Davis wrote to Assistant U.S. Interior Secretary Bennett Raley. "If we work together, I am optimistic that MWD will receive the water they purchased.'
A week ago, the state Department of Water Resources, which had agreed to store water for Metropolitan in Lake Oroville in Northern California, reversed itself and said full rains had left no room in the system for the agency's water.
On Thursday, a top state water official said space may become available for Metropolitan's water in Lake Oroville later this summer after regularly scheduled releases of water through the dam.
"The characterization that we or anybody else are holding 100,000 acre-feet of water and we're just going to open up the gates and let it go is just not the situation,' Steve Verigin, the department's chief deputy director of water resources, said Thursday.
Raley, the Bush administration's point man for Western water issues, extended an offer to store a substantial amount of Metropolitan's water in Lake Shasta near Redding to avoid what he called "a tragic loss of this irreplaceable resource.'
State officials have been trying to get the Metropolitan Water District to sign a landmark but controversial deal to share the Colorado River. Last month, the Department of Water Resources said it was suspending payments to Metropolitan to prod the agency into signing the Colorado deal along with three other water agencies.
Davis summoned the heads of all four water agencies to Sacramento on Monday to discuss ways the state can help close the deal and protect the state's portion of the Colorado River, which is shared by six other states.
When California failed to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to sign the deal, Interior Secretary Gale Norton reduced the amount of water the state can draw from the Colorado by 15 percent. Norton has indicated she will restore the water if the state is able to reach an agreement.
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