Change Those Water Ways

California is groping its way toward the 21st Century with a water plan adopted in 1959 that is delivering only about half of the supplies promised by now, and that most likely never will reach the goals set 30 years ago. Official California water policy remains mired in political deadlock over the old issue of transferring more water from Northern California to the south. For a California politician to stray from his home area’s water ideology is considered treasonous and certain political suicide, particularly in Northern California. The result is an absence of leadership that is willing or able to rise above parochial interest on water issues.

Time and events are leaving the politicians behind, however. In bits and pieces, a new California policy is evolving outside of the legislative chambers and governor’s office. The courts are writing dramatic new chapters in state water law with heavy emphasis on environmental protection. Water managers are using innovative means to develop new supplies. Reality is demonstrating that north and south have strong interests in common. Unofficial new alliances are eroding the old belief that all water disputes in the state are rooted in civil warfare, and particularly the transfer of more northern water to the south via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Many of the trends are positive. Californians are more conscious of water limitations and the need for conservation every day, not just in droughts. Water exchanges are being made that benefit all. The environment is beginning to get the protection it deserves. There is a trend toward more realistic pricing of water. Questions finally are being raised about the relationship of water availability and growth. Distributors are confronting water quality and health issues. State and federal agencies are working to solve some of the environmental damage caused by massive pumping from the delta into their canals for shipment elsewhere in Northern California and to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The State Water Resources Control Board is developing new water quality standards for the delta that will determine how much water can be exported from it safely.

But these actions are occurring mostly on an isolated, ad hoc basis with little attention to how they mesh with one another or fit within the puzzle of broad public policy. A state as big and dynamic as California, and one that is so dependent on water supplies imported from other parts of the state, needs a modern, integrated water management program. Such a program should provide prudent supplies for reasonable growth while maintaining agriculture and the environment. California must develop new off-stream reservoir storage in both the north and south to better ensure against dry periods. California should have an effective ground-water management law to stop the depletion of aquifers. The state needs an organized structure to facilitate water marketing, primarily for those farmers who desire to sell irrigation water to urban areas. There must be a credible mechanism for managing the delta in the best interests of all the state.

Also, the state and federal projects should be merged. There should be a streamlined process for handling water-allocation appeals that now take years to resolve. A broader spectrum of the public must become involved in water-issue decision-making.

These requirements are not just a Southern California ruse to get more of the north’s water. The 1987-89 drought demonstrated that the cities of the north are living much closer to the margin than the south. This is one state with one limited water supply. It needs a modern, flexible, coordinated policy that serves all.