State May Be Allowed to Tap U.S. for Water : Drought: Cranston, Seymour introduce legislation to permit temporary access to federal reservoirs and canals.

Key members of Congress held out hope Friday for early federal action to help drought-stricken California counties and cities gain access to U.S. government reservoirs and canals for temporary storage and transfer of water.

New Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) teamed with veteran Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) to introduce legislation that would lift longstanding legal restrictions blocking the use of such federal facilities for municipal, industrial, domestic and fish and wildlife purposes.

“There are over 30 federal reservoirs and 5,000 miles of canals we could be using right now to help cope with water shortages due to the drought,” said Seymour, who called for immediate congressional approval of the bill.

Without the use of federal facilities, local water districts may be forced to use more costly alternatives to store and deliver emergency water supplies, Seymour noted.

As an example, he said, Santa Barbara cannot use excess storage capacity in Cachuma Reservoir, and Santa Clara County cannot move water through the San Felipe Canal.

“We can open up these desperately needed facilities now without costing taxpayers a dime and without taking water away from others,” Seymour said.

Meanwhile, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), scheduled a Feb. 19 special hearing of his water and power subcommittee of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee to consider recommendations for emergency and long-range measures by the federal government to alleviate California’s severe drought problems.

Top state and federal officials were invited to give their assessments of the short-run impact of the unprecedented water shortages that have threatened California’s agricultural industry and led to water rationing in some communities.

The witness list includes Doug Wheeler, California Resources Agency secretary; David Kennedy, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources; Manuel Lujan, U.S. secretary of the Interior; Dennis Underwood, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and John Turner, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition, Miller said he will ask for proposals to improve the long-term management of the Central Valley Project, the major federal water facility in the state.

Miller is acting Interior and Insular Affairs chairman and thus is likely to have a decisive influence on the scheduling and content of major drought-relief legislation this year.

Underwood of the Bureau of Reclamation said federal water deliveries to California farmers may be reduced by 50% to 75% in the wake of a cutoff of all state water for agriculture.

He said that the amount of the cutback will be announced Thursday in Sacramento and at other meetings in San Jose, Fresno and Redding.

“We’ve had some rains recently, but they haven’t had a significant effect,” Underwood said in a telephone interview.

Current conditions in California are almost as severe as they were after the seven-year drought that ended in 1934, Underwood said.

“We may have taken a more cautious approach (than state officials) in terms of management,” Underwood said. “We’ve been cutting back for a couple of years now.”

While most members of Congress have been focusing on the drought, the freeze that destroyed much of the California citrus crop in late December and early January is receiving Cranston’s attention.

Noting that Gov. Pete Wilson asked President Bush on Jan. 18 to declare a major disaster for 31 counties in the state, Cranston expressed concern that no action had been taken on Wilson’s request by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.