Assembly OKs Water Diversion Bill With Spate of Amendments

The Assembly on Friday passed and sent to the Senate a heavily amended version of its water development bill that would divert additional quantities of surplus Northern California water to the south.

During a protracted debate that started Thursday evening and spilled into the early morning hours of Friday, the author, Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), was unable to fend off hostile amendments aimed at making the bill less savory to its backers in Southern California.

One amendment by Speaker Willie Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco) would prohibit the construction of any new water-export works in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta before water quality standards are set for San Francisco Bay and the delta.

The state Water Resources Control Board soon will embark on the task, which is expected to take at least three years to complete. Bay Area interests fear that diverting more surplus water to the south before the standards are in place would degrade the quality of water in the bay.

Costa insisted that the measure already contained adequate environmental safeguards for the bay, an argument rejected by Brown, who asserted that additional protections were necessary so that the water quality would not be damaged “one iota.”

The amendment squeaked by, 38-37.

Water Sales Price

The Assembly also adopted, 43 to 33, an amendment by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) that would require the sprawling Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and other State Water Project contractors, to sell their surplus quantities at market value rates. Currently, such water is sold to farmers in the southern San Joaquin Valley at discount rates.

Proceeds from such sales would be spent to reduce water rates and property taxes, or to finance water conservation programs.

The Katz amendment, opposed by water contractors and MWD, would make MWD the water “czar” of California, Costa charged, noting that the agency is the biggest importer and wholesale distributor of water in the state.

New Canal Possible

Costa’s bill, which is opposed by delta and San Francisco Bay interests and by environmental protection organizations, envisions exporting more water by widening and deepening sloughs in the environmentally sensitive delta. It would permit construction of a new canal across 13 miles of the region, if necessary.

Supporters maintain that it also would improve the quality of water both in the delta and for export, protect fish and wildlife, improve deteriorating levees and provide additional flood control.

The bill advanced to the Senate on a 43-30 vote, where the key bill of a rival package by Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) already has been passed. The two programs likely will be merged into a compromise bill later in the summer.

Meanwhile, Ayala on Friday shelved until at least January a bill aimed at operating at full capacity the State Water Project pumps near Tracy that pour water into the California Aqueduct for the journey south. Currently, they operate at about 70%.

The Ayala bill is strongly opposed by environmental organizations, including the Planning and Conservation League, which maintains that the bill would wipe out a delta fishery protection agreement between the Water Resources and Fish and Game departments.

Ayala maintains that if additional water is to be developed for both storage and export to Southern California, the pumps should be operated at full capacity. The bill would require Water Resources Director David Kennedy to seek the proper permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over pumping from the delta.

Ayala said he shelved the measure because supporters of the controversial bill in the Senate were absent Friday.