Federal Water Bill

Your editorial “Undoing the Mistakes of Past” (Oct. 5) was the ultimate in contradiction. In one breath you advocate letting “the people of California allocate nearly 8 million acre-feet of water with a process that fits the state’s present-day needs.”

In the very next sentence, however, you advocate turning those decisions over to the federal government by passage of a bill by New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.

The last thing in the world California needs is a decree from the federal government--whether it is a bill by Bradley, proposals by the General Accounting Office (GAO), or high-handed actions by the Environmental Protection Agency--as to how California’s water supplies should be allocated and managed.

The basic flaw in the proposals by Bradley and the GAO is that they single out one project, the Central Valley Project (CVP), ignoring the many other water projects and other activities that contribute to the fish, wildlife and other environmental problems in California. Dozens of projects developed by local agencies throughout the state contribute to the problems, as well as mining, oil refining, paper processing, and a host of other activities.

The Bradley bill goes even further, however, proposing to arbitrarily cut water supplies, then impose a hefty tax on the remaining allocations to pay for unspecified “environmental improvements.” There is no justification for such a punitive approach.

It is clear that Bradley has bought the support of “thirsty urban areas” with the promise of a relatively small amount of CVP water. Most of the water taken from CVP customers, however, would go to meet an open-ended commitment to fish and wildlife, leaving both the farms and cities high and dry. Does The Times think that’s a good deal?

Rather than divisive actions like the Bradley bill and the GAO proposals, what California needs is a willingness to work together to solve environmental and water supply problems. The efforts under way by the federal and state project customers and the ongoing talks among urban, agricultural and environmental interests (the so-called three-way process) offer real hope of achieving that goal without federal interference.

JERALD R. BUTCHERT

General Manager

Westlands Water District, Fresno