Free Republic

Re: Mark Traugher, "Peripheral Canal No Drought Lifeline, Contra Costa Water District Finds, Contra Costa Times, April 24, 2009 - Synopsis: A $10 billion plan to build a canal around the Sacramento Delta would not deliver significantly more water to cities and farms if it were in place this year, new data shows. It would divert water around the Delta for delivery to farms and cities. But numbers developed by a state-run planning group seeking to build the canal show it would not deliver more water in dry years, the Contra Costa Water District stated this week. Link: http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12221166?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com RESPONSE:...

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...

SACRAMENTO - Guarding against a unilateral move by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to build a revised Peripheral Canal, key lawmakers have inserted special provisions in the state budget to prevent an end-run around the Legislature and voters. Schwarzenegger's top water advisers maintain they have no intentions of independently launching a new north-to-south delivery system. But, the state has already initiated exploratory environmental studies for four different conveyance options. Even the Legislature's own attorney, in a recent opinion, concluded that the Department of Water Resources "has the authority, without further legislative or voter approval, to build a conveyance facility, commonly referred to...