Wilson Says Now Isn’t the Time to Build Canal Around Delta

Gov. Pete Wilson said Friday that he does not believe a canal around the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta should be attempted in the next seven years--despite a plea from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Wilson’s comments came at a ceremony where he signed a $235-million appropriation bill to make possible a historic water sales agreement between the Imperial Valley and the San Diego County Water Authority. The water will be carried to San Diego through MWD’s Colorado Aqueduct.

The MWD last week protested the decision by officials of a state-federal project to delay any consideration of building a 44-mile, north-south canal to bypass the delta and link the Sacramento River and the California Aqueduct.

MWD board members insist that a canal is needed to improve the quality of water that Southern California receives from the State Water Project. Water drawn into the aqueduct from the delta suffers from salinity, bromides and other contaminants.

But Wilson said he believes that other methods of improving water quality in the delta should be attempted and more studies done on the level of contamination and other issues before the canal idea is revived.

John Foley, MWD board chairman, said that although he wished the governor had said he was reinstating the canal as an immediate alternative, he was heartened that Wilson indicated the idea is not going to die, only be delayed.

“We hope at least that actions will be taken during that [seven-year] period that will make a canal a viable alternative,” Foley said. “I think, indirectly, that the governor agrees with us but that the timing isn’t right.”

Wilson administration officials said they believe that California will ultimately be forced to build a canal to meet the stringent standards of the federal Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the health dangers posed by bromides in drinking water.

Officials hope that the study will help overcome the adamant opposition to a canal by Northern Californians and environmentalists.

Powerful pumps at the southern end of the delta pull water into the California Aqueduct so it can be shipped to Southern California. The pumps also kill fish and draw seawater from the San Francisco Bay into the delta.