Legislators Try to Save Water Deal

After the failure of Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders to agree on a water bond, officials were scrambling Friday to pull together the details of a quickly drawn $235-million bill to consummate a historic water deal among San Diego County, the Imperial Valley and the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The Assembly had been poised to take up the bill Friday night, but abruptly put off the vote until Monday, the last day lawmakers are in session. Legislators from San Diego expected to spend the weekend lining up the votes needed to win passage of such a major undertaking.

The $235-million expenditure would come out of this year’s state budget reserve, depleting money for other projects. The bond measure, by contrast, would have been paid off gradually over as long as 20 years.

“We’ve got to convince people that this is a good deal for everybody,” said Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego).

Chris Frahm, chairwoman of the San Diego County Water Authority, warned of “potential disaster” for the state if the bill fails, because the water deal is key to preventing the federal government from reducing the state’s take from the Colorado River. Southern California gets 70% of its water from the Colorado.

Frahm and other water officials had been banking on a water bond to provide funds to consummate the three-way water deal.

The $1.67-billion bond issue that Wilson and lawmakers from Southern California and the Central Valley wanted placed before voters died in a cross-fire of recriminations between the governor and the leader of the state Senate, John Burton (D-San Francisco).

Wilson blamed “no-growth advocates” and environmentalists who want to restrict the state’s water supply as a way to control growth, who he said brought unreasoning political pressure on Burton and others.

Burton blasted back that the failure of the bond proposal was a product of Wilson’s insistence on including money for more reservoirs, projects that are anathema to many in the environmental movement.

In one of the more unusual alliances seen in Sacramento, officials from the usually antagonistic MWD and San Diego County Water Authority were busy lobbying for funds Friday to keep the transfer plan from dying.

A bill was cobbled together near midnight Thursday to provide $235 million to help close the deal whereby the MWD would allow its Colorado Aqueduct, in effect, to be used to ship some of the Imperial Valley’s annual share of the Colorado River to San Diego. The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved the bill shortly before 1 a.m Friday.

Late Friday, the full Assembly decided to hear the bill at 10 a.m. Monday before adjourning. If it passes, the bill advances to the Senate.

“I feel shellshocked,” Frahm said. “It’s been a long, long week here.”

The money would be used to line the All-American and Coachella canals in Imperial Valley and for underground storage. Lining the canals would help conserve water that is now lost through seepage.

After months of contentious negotiations, San Diego and MWD officials announced earlier this month that a deal had been struck for use of the aqueduct. One sticking point in the negotiations had been which agency would pay for lining the canals and developing the storage.

With Wilson’s blessing, the two sides decided that the cost should be borne by a bond issue.

That idea was immediately attacked by some environmental groups who insisted that wealthy agencies such as the MWD and the San Diego County Water Authority should not be bailed out by state taxpayers because of their inability to settle the cost issue. Even some Southern California lawmakers were opposed.

“Why do we need a bond for that?” Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) asked late Thursday. “That’s an agreement [San Diego-MWD] that should have been a no-brainer.”

A similar argument was heard Friday from legislators who found a direct state budget appropriation for the San Diego-Imperial deal no more politically palatable than a bond issue.

Water officials sought to persuade legislators from districts outside Southern California that the $235-million appropriations bill sponsored by Sens. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon) and David Kelley (R-Idyllwild) was crucial to the entire state.

The story is in the numbers: By law, California is allocated 4.4 million acre-feet of water each year from the Colorado River. In recent years, however, the state has been drawing about 800,000 acre-feet above that allocation.

Other Western states that depend on the Colorado are increasingly eager for California to reduce its take from the river. Unless California begins to show that it can live within its allocation, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has threatened to order a mandatory reduction in the state’s take, which could have an immediate and wrenching impact on the lifestyle and economy of Southern California.

The San Diego County-Imperial Valley deal was seen as a way to transfer water from agricultural areas to thirsty urban and suburban areas and wean California away from the idea that it can expect to continue taking more than its share of the Colorado with impunity.

San Diego would like to buy up to 200,000 acre-feet of water a year--enough for 1.6 million people--from the Colorado River allocation of the Imperial Irrigation District. Through lining the earthen canals, farmers in the Imperial Valley would conserve an amount of water equal to that sold to San Diego.

The Imperial district and two smaller agricultural water districts are assured 3.3 million of the state’s 4.4-million acre-foot allocation.