Coordinated Operation Agreement on Water

Your editorial (Nov. 3), “Water Breakthrough,” correctly heralded the signing of HR 3113 by President Reagan as a milestone in water development in California.

This bill, authored by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), is but one example of the creative approaches being taken by the public water industry in California. HR 3113 provides for a Coordinated Operation Agreement between the federal and state governments in the diversion of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This water is used by cities around the San Francisco Bay area, by farmers in the Central Valley, and by Southern Californians.

With the Coordinated Operation Agreement, both the state and federal projects will be able to operate more efficiently, which means that those limited supplies of water will be put to better use. Those higher efficiencies, in turn, also mean that the delta will be more environmentally sound.

Those two, sometimes opposite, factors resulted in a rare, broadly based platform of support for this bill among the water industry and environmentalists. I hope that spirit of cooperation can be a continuing benefit of the agreement.

While the agreement cannot solve all of the water distribution problems of the state, agencies like Metropolitan are looking at the benefits of other, similar cooperative projects. These include water exchange agreements in Kern County, groundwater storage programs here on the Coastal Plain, and agreements with agricultural agencies along the Colorado River in the southeastern part of the state.

The only major pieces left in the puzzle are ways to store more water from the huge winter flood flows that rush through the delta and a safer method of moving water across the delta.

The Times called the measure, “Milestone No. 1.” That implies that there will be at least a “No. 2.” As municipal water agencies continue to work with the agricultural and environmental communities, we look forward to taking that second step.

E. THORNTON IBBETSON

Los Angeles

Ibbetson is chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.