Wilson’s New Wet Suit : WATER WATCH: The governor’s big, if arguable, plan

It is difficult to take exception with much of Gov. Pete Wilson’s outline of a new California water policy--especially one that he argues will work for both people and wild creatures.

But the most difficult part of water policy has always been injecting detail and substance into even the most visionary of outlines, and Wilson has stopped short of the hard part.

In his first major water speech as governor, delivered in San Diego last Monday, Wilson worked his way through a decades-old litany of policy. He mentioned the importance of not pumping California’s wells dry. He endorsed a free market in water, recycling and efficient management.

He said more water projects are needed and named three specific sites for building storage dams south of the rich but endangered Sacramento River Delta.

And he talked of protecting the delta fishery and the marshes and swamps that nurture wildfowl. Prudent as all this is, the details--even the hard bargaining over the details--remain in the future.

Still, urban, agricultural and environmental spokesmen should accept his offer to lead them beyond the general agreements on policy that they have reached in casual talks since late 1990.

Although Wilson said he thinks Sens. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) and Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) are meddling in California’s business, both are working hard to get the U.S. Senate to agree to break the grip of irrigation districts on water delivered by the federal Central Valley Project.

That is a necessary move, one that would allow farmers in the San Joaquin Valley to sell water they do not use for crops to cities or other customers anywhere in the state--something now forbidden under federal law.

With California’s population likely to rise by 10 million in two decades, and with little chance to produce fresh supplies fast enough to keep pace with such growth, transfers of water from farms to cities will be crucial.

There probably is not much that Wilson can do--one way or another--about the Johnston/Bradley bill or about House amendments.

But cities, farmers and environmentalists will all be crucial to implementing any change in federal water policy that would help salvage the Delta.

As Wilson said, the delta is broken, partly the result of years of water projects with unforeseen side effects that have damaged habitat.

The three groups, whose conversations over nearly 18 months have been so informal that their spokesmen refer to the dialogue only as “The Three-Way,” will still be essential to California’s water future.

Wilson said he wants cities, agriculture and the environment to get their fair shares of whatever water is available. He does not want any of them getting “ahead of the others in meeting their needs.”

Participants in the Three-Way may be the only ones in the state who can steer the governor through the often complex arithmetic of fair shares.

But sound water policy does not flow easily from simple advice and dialogue. That will take formidable leadership, a job for which Wilson now has irreversibly volunteered.