Cautious Wilson Dips Into Treacherous Water Wars : Wisely rules out trying to run everything from Sacramento--for now

When war comes, California’s Hiram Johnson said many wars ago, “the first casualty is truth.” Now it seems equally axiomatic that when severe drought comes, the first casualty is teamwork among the regions and factions that most need to cooperate. But it is exactly that kind of teamwork that is essential to make scarce supplies last until it rains again in earnest. And it is that kind of teamwork that’s needed to rewrite drought plans so that everybody knows the rules.

Gov. Pete Wilson, whose inaugural ceremony ironically was driven into shelter by rain, said and did just the right things Friday to try to pull the state back together. It will be hard work.

He made it clear that, despite the efforts of the California Water Resources Control Board to plan for the worst, the governor is in charge.

He reappointed David N. Kennedy as director of water resources and also put him in charge of a drought team that has a two-week deadline for producing an emergency plan.

He said another thing that needed saying: The drought may last long enough to be a threat to the environment and parts of the state’s economy, but it is no threat to life.

For example, officials of the Metropolitan Water District will ask their policy board to cut normal deliveries of water to local agencies in Southern California by 31%. If the drought persists, it may have to cut deliveries by 45%, a grim prospect for most of the MWD’s customers, especially for San Diego County, which depends on the agency for 95% of its water.

But for the most part, the MWD’s first target assumes cuts of about 20% in residential use, reductions that with careful use still would leave enough water for gardens.

Wilson’s move makes it unlikely that anything will come of one idea floated by the state water board for a statewide ration of 300 gallons of water per household. And cutbacks of water that would come with the mandatory rationing under study by the Los Angeles City Council are not Draconian. As the city’s Department of Water and Power notes, people can save 85 gallons of water by using a bucket of water to wash a car instead of a hose. Low-flow shower heads can cut water use by two-thirds.

Wilson wisely ruled out, at least for the time being, trying to run everything from Sacramento. It is people who will make or break any plan to cope with the water emergency, so the closer to home that plans are drawn, the better the chance that they will work.

To this end, Wilson must get to the bottom of complaints that State Water Project reservoirs are drier than they need be. If water agencies persuaded Sacramento to gamble that the drought would be over by now, thus allowing them to draw more water than they should have, doubts will be raised about whether the shortage needed to be this severe. People won’t take seriously Wilson’s pledge to treat everyone fairly if the water bureaucrats are playing games.

Even more serious is damage to efforts to break the water deadlock between Northern and Southern California. For more than a decade, Northern California has blocked a canal to bypass the Sacramento river delta with water destined for Southern California. The canal, along with more underground water storage, would help not only the south but parts of the north in the current drought. The north fought the canal because it fears that water would be kept flowing south in a dry year even if it meant higher salinity levels in the delta and therefore damage to its environment. Southern Californians have pleaded innocent of any such intent.

Recent calls for temporary suspension of delta water-quality standards from big rural water agencies have revived environmental fears in the north. The Metropolitan Water District did not help when it said that to keep water running south, someday there might need to be a brief relaxation in delta environmental standards.

Water warriors have long memories. Even if cooperation were a casualty only on the canal, the water future will be difficult to manage.

Less Water in Reserve

Water stored in 155 California reservoirs in millions of acre-feet. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons.

Capacity: 37.7 Average: 22.3 ‘86: 24.8 ‘87: 20.1 ‘88: 15.2 ‘89: 16.3 ‘90: 12.0 Source: California Department of Water Resources