Quietly Pushing at the Barriers : WATER WATCH: Proposed federal and state legislation work toward a free market

California’s efforts to cope with a fifth year of drought--and prepare for a sixth if necessary--glide along in deceptive silence.

New laws still seem more likely to produce fresh supplies of water than seeding clouds. On average, the state’s reservoirs hold just under two-thirds of the normal supply of water for this time of year, a percentage that will drop during the summer no matter what the success of urban rationing plans. More and more, purchases of water that would otherwise be used for irrigation seem the only way, short of heavy rainfall, to break the grip of drought in cities.

And in that deceptive silence, the legislative process in Washington and Sacramento is pushing at legal barriers that still exist to hamper operation of a free market in water.

U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), for example, will hold hearings in Sacramento on Thursday on S 484, his bill to make California law, not federal regulations, determine the pattern of distribution of 8 million acre-feet of water a year by the federal Central Valley Project.

Existing regulations prohibit farmers who get federal project water from selling it. Bradley may start trying to move his vitally important bill through the Senate next month.

In a related move, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) wants to let farmers sell water, even if it means taking land out of production temporarily, whether the agency they buy irrigation water from likes it or not. That is also important legislation because large rural agencies can, if not block, at least snarl water sales by invoking clauses in long-term delivery contracts and other legal maneuvers.

If the Bradley bill becomes law, the Katz approach would apply not only to the state water project but to the much larger federal project.

Water agencies oppose the bill for reasons that vary by region. In Kern County, for example, the water district wants an agreement that it can get more water in wet years to recharge its underground supplies before it lets its farmer clients take land out of production to sell their water.

One common objection is that if too much land is left fallow as farmers sell water to cities, rural communities that sell agricultural equipment and supplies will suffer economically.

Katz plans to put a 20% limit on the amount of land that could be taken out of production in any water district’s service area.

The legislative process is less noisy or even visible than, say, bulldozers and earth movers piling up new dams to create new reservoirs. But for now, it is far more important to California’s future water supplies.