Loans Sought to Attack San Joaquin Pollution

Rural lawmakers moved swiftly Tuesday to obtain $100 million in state-financed low-interest loans to begin the search for ways to remove poisons that have contaminated the rich soil of the San Joaquin Valley.

At a hastily called hearing, the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee voted to tack the $100-million loan program onto an Assembly-passed $100-million water conservation bond issue slated for the June 3 ballot.

The additional money would provide loans to growers who face possible shutdown of their farms unless something is done soon to clean up the contamination that has poisoned huge tracts of land as well as the Kesterson wildlife refuge.

The action of the committee, which is dominated by rural legislators, came with only brief notice to the public. Legislative rules requiring advance notice were waived, letting the committee act despite the fact that the meeting was first announced Tuesday morning. Supporters sought quick action so the measure could meet necessary deadlines and appear on the primary ballot.

Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who acknowledged that the measure was drafted just days ago, told the committee that he was concerned that waiting for the November election would place the Kesterson bond measure on the same ballot with a large number of competing measures.

Questions Raised

The bill was approved on a 9-0 vote and sent to the Appropriations Committee. But while it appeared to be on a fast track, legislative sources warned that questions have been raised about the wisdom of using taxpayer money on proposals that might do little to solve a problem that has baffled many scientists.

Consultants to the committee, for example, warned that the $100 million would be unlikely to buy more than a temporary solution or perhaps no solution at all.

The problem in the San Joaquin Valley stems from high levels of selenium and other poisonous byproducts of irrigation. At one time, agricultural officials had proposed a massive drain that would have carried the poisons into San Francisco Bay.

However, the drain was never completed, and the runoff was allowed to flow into the Kesterson Reservoir near Los Banos, where it caused death and birth deformities among waterfowl and other wildlife.

Although the problem directly affects about 42,000 acres of rich farmland in western Fresno County, federal studies have concluded that the threat is far more widespread, potentially affecting an area 50 times the size of Kesterson.

Completing the drain system to San Francisco Bay, once considered the ultimate solution, has been abandoned as politically impractical in the face of united opposition from Bay Area lawmakers and environmentalists. The federal government, which supplied much of the water to the farms, is studying the issue. Most of the proposed solutions would cost billions of dollars.

The bond measure approved Tuesday is meant to develop new solutions, among them a proposal to build huge desalting plants and sell the purified water to cities.

Farmers or private firms with proposals to solve the contamination problem could apply for loans of up to $5 million. The money would be paid back over 25 years at an undetermined low interest rate.

Water Resources Director David N. Kennedy told the committee that “this doesn’t solve the problem by any means, but it does get us off the dime.”

However, Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Santa Cruz) said he is concerned that financially strapped farmers may not be able to repay the loans, leaving the state with a huge debt and no solution to the problem.