WATER WATCH : Deal on the Delta

As the author Marc Reisner once observed, water in the American West runs uphill--toward money. Nothing quite so defines and controls the economic life and destiny of California as the massive man-made plumbing that draws water down from the north, lifts it over the Tehachapi Mountains and turns arid Southern California into one of the world’s great metropolises.

But this has come at a high price, in more than just dollars. The essential heart of the circulation system that feeds Southern California lies 400 miles north of Los Angeles, in the Sacramento Delta and estuary, where waters from melting mountain snows are diverted into huge aqueducts, the great liquid freeways that flow south to farms and cities.

Years of overpumping, compounded by drought, have brought these ecologically sensitive wetlands east of San Francisco to near-collapse. The historic balance between fresh and brackish water has been seriously upset, threatening many species and damaging water quality.

We therefore welcome news that California’s 11 largest urban water agencies have reached agreement with environmentalists on new salinity standards for Suisun Bay in the delta. They acted not entirely out of altruism; the threat of legal action under the federal and state endangered species acts helped sharpen the issue.

This could mean tighter water supplies in dry years. But Southern California has benefited mightily for decades from the delta. It’s time to recognize that it must be healed, both to protect wildlife and future water supplies.