Troubled Waters

A historic agreement to integrate operations of state and federal water projects in California could well be the foundation on which is built the water future of the state.

But legislation to ratify the Coordinated Operating Agreement, approved by the state Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in May, 1985, is being opposed in Congress by the Reagan Administration.

The Administration’s stubbornness on this issue is inexplicable, given the overwhelming support by California interests for the House’s ratification bill. Rarely has such a coalition, including former adversaries, come together on a California water issue.

Under negotiation for decades, the agreement would provide for environmental protection of the Sacramento-San Joaquin rivers delta from which both the state Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project pump the water that provides life and economic vitality to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

For the first time the federal government would officially acknowledge its responsibility to meet state water-quality standards in the delta and to protect the estuary against salt-water intrusion from San Francisco Bay. This would be achieved by coordination of state and federal pumping from the delta and by allowing certain amounts of water to flow out to the bay during dry periods. Only with this sort of agreement can Southern California ever hope to import more water from the north.

California approved the pact immediately, but congressional action was needed to achieve federal consent. A House bill--HR 3113, by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez)--included other provisions agreed to by California water interests. One would obligate the federal project to adhere to new delta standards when they are established in the next year or so by the state Water Resources Control Board. The Administration objects. It is willing to play by today’s rules, but not necessarily tomorrow’s.

The Administration also insists that federal project customers, primarily farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, pay the cost of any water needed to protect the delta. Under the Miller bill the federal government would bear such costs, which are minimal. The Treasury would not lose any money that it is taking in now.

To make the farmers pay for water that they will never see or use makes no sense. A healthy delta environment benefits all. And the federal government would be more than compensated through the marketing of water that it cannot now sell.

For unknown reasons the Senate dropped several key provisions of the Miller bill, although they were supported by both California senators. These differences now are being negotiated in a Senate-House conference committee. The Administration holds the key.

The Coordinated Operating Agreement is a model of state-federal cooperation. The positive implications of the accord go far beyond the accounting books of the Central Valley Project. Yet the Administration’s Office of Management and Budget has issued a veiled threat that President Reagan will veto the House version of the bill.

As a former California governor, Reagan should understand the potential for harm if his Interior Department and OMB aides doom ratification at this critical juncture. California is experiencing a renaissance of cooperation in search of a resolution of the state’s bitter water disputes. That quest is jeopardized unless the COA is approved via Miller’s HR 3113. The President can solve this impasse with a nod of his head. He should do so now.