Environmentalists Assail Delta Water Diversion Plan

California environmentalists complained Thursday that a plan by the Deukmejian Administration to capture more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would spell disaster for the estuaries it feeds and the fish and wildlife that inhabit them.

The environmentalists said a draft proposal by the Department of Water Resources for water development in the South Delta was actually the first step “in an overall plan to divert more water from Northern to Southern California.”

“This is a renewal of an effort by the Deukmejian Administration to divert water through a facility that became popularly known as ‘Duke’s ditch’ when he was attempting to get it passed by the Legislature several years ago. . . . The approach now is to authorize it piece by piece,” said Gerald Meral, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League.

Meral said the suggestions in the new plan, combined with other proposals the agency is expected to release soon, would ultimately allow delta exports to be increased by 1.2 million acre-feet a year. The additional water would be shipped south, he said, by way of the State Water Project to agricultural interests and urban areas.

The State Water Project sells water to the Metropolitan Water District, which then resells it to customers in Southern California including the City of Los Angeles.

While acknowledging that the proposal would permit more water to be exported, state officials disputed Meral’s contention that it would be as much as 1.2 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre with one foot of water.

“I don’t think the projects we’re talking about here in the next 10 years add up to that 1.2 million,” said Fred Bachman, supervising engineer for the water resources department and an author of the proposal. If the initial proposal is adopted, he said it would permit additional diversions of about 66,000 acre-feet.

Bachman conceded that state water officials have made a political decision to attack water problems on a step-by-step basis rather than put forward one grand proposal. “You just can’t get support for these big massive projects,” he said.

Bachman said officials believe that by shifting their major pumping to the winter they can take more water and help alleviate fish problems at the same time. In the winter, he said, there is more water in the delta and fewer young fish that might be killed by the pumping action.

But environmentalists insisted that any additional diversions, no matter what time of year, would further damage the already threatened wetlands and fisheries.

The plan “would be a disaster for the bay and more than likely sound a death knell for many . . . fisheries,” said Barry Nelson, executive director of the Save San Francisco Bay Assn.