History of Water Impasse

The Times editorial “Water: Still a Riddle” (Aug. 21) correctly concluded that the water impasse is the product of a complex political scene that requires statewide leadership to overcome, along with less study and more action.

The public and many of our officials need to know that:

* Decades ago, California devised a State Water Plan to meet urban and agricultural water needs into the next century. But it has been dangerously detoured, preventing completion of its main facet, the State Water Project.

* The plan proposed water storage facilities to provide a firm yield, even in dry cycles, to meet such needs. But key projects were jockeyed out of existence by state and federal Wild Rivers bills. Witness the death in 1969 of the $245 million Eel River Dos Rios Dam, designed to provide a firm yield of 900,000 acre feet a year. Its cost today would be several billion dollars.

* Water conveyance facilities provided in the plan, including the State Aqueduct, have been completed, but a gaping Delta hole remains--a facility to get high-quality water south to farms and cities free of San Francisco Bay salts and Delta pollution. The hole exists because an integral part of the state plan, the Delta Peripheral Canal, was defeated in 1982 due to an overwhelmingly negative Northern vote and apathetic Southern support.

Three major obstacles to a water solution exist today:

1. The so-called water establishment, including water agencies, cities and counties, which are loath to adopt a hard line in fighting opponents of water development. 2. Environmental groups, which have made water development their prime target. The current national public concern over environmental degradation makes the selling of water projects more difficult than ever.

3. A North-South schism over water. Northern California historically has voted against transferring water southward, despite recent Southern peace overtures. Three-fourths of this state’s undeveloped water exists in the North.

California is desperately in need of “statewide leadership at the highest level” to solve its water dilemma, as The Times puts it.

Gov. Deukmejian and his water director, David Kennedy, have backed away from forceful action, electing to try to keep all sides happy by offending no one. JACK W. KEATING

Retired Executive Manager

California Water

Resources Assn.