Conferees on Knotty State Water Issue OK Accord

House and Senate negotiators agreed Wednesday on legislation that would end an emotional, decades-old dispute that has limited Southern California’s ability to import more water from Northern California.

The legislation, which still must be approved by each house, would make available throughout the state each year a million acre-feet of surplus water now being withheld by the federal government. About one-third of the additional water could be sold to Southern California.

The legislation’s central provision would require the federal government for the first time to abide by state water standards in a joint operation of the federal Central Valley Water Project and the California Water Project.

The two projects operate side by side in the environmentally fragile delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet and flow into San Francisco Bay. On occasion, the pumping has drawn saltwater into the area, hurting its fishing and farming.

New Standards

In 1978, the state Water Resources Control Board, seeking to curb the Northern California damage, adopted new water quality standards that limit the allowable salinity of the water. Since then, the state and federal governments have been wrangling over what role each should play in meeting the standards.

“Our feeling in the north has always been that we were going to be left behind” in development of water sources for the dry southern areas of California, said California Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), architect of the plan. “This assures the people in the (San Joaquin) delta that the projects are going to be operated to protect their interests.”

“We’ve been in water wars for years in California,” agreed Bob Will, Washington spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “It doesn’t settle all of the issues, but it’s a hell of a good start.”

The Administration earlier had threatened to veto the bill, citing the potential costs to the government, but has not yet made its position clear on the revised agreement. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said he believes that President Reagan will ultimately support the agreement.

Even as they have disagreed over the years, the federal and state governments have informally coordinated their pumping operations in an effort to meet the standards.

But the agreement approved by negotiators would for the first time legally obligate the federal project to operate cooperatively with the state system.

The federal project has the capability to supply a million more acre-feet of water, but it lacks canal space. The agreement would allow the state to use its excess canal capacity to transport the federal water.

Roughly 5 million acre-feet of water a year currently is sent south from the delta to San Joaquin Valley farmers and urban Southern California. An acre-foot is enough water to supply a family of four for a year.