Water Lifeline in Peril

For five years, all of California has cruised along on the bounty of surplus water, largely because of above-average rain and snowfall. Both El Nino and La Nina have been good to the state. But this fall, the storms are moving farther north and, for this and other reasons, there is acute stress on the giant water pot known as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This is the estuary that feeds the pumps and aqueducts of federal and state water projects serving farms in the San Joaquin Valley and the homes and businesses of 16 million Southern Californians.

As a result, the delta has become extremely salty, forcing a virtual shutdown of water exports to the south. Silicon Valley already is facing a 25% cut in its water supply from the delta. A key reservoir south of the delta--brimming a year ago--is only half full.

The current crisis is caused in part by a combination of lack of rainfall and cutbacks in pumping to protect fisheries. The situation is aggravated by extraordinarily high tides that are pushing salty ocean water up into the estuary.

The degree of emergency depends on which expert you talk to, but an official of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California notes that the quality of water in the delta is comparable to 1977, California’s worst drought year. Could this be the start of a new drought cycle with the potential for even more hardship than in the 1970s? No one knows. But the water wizards need to prepare for any eventuality.

Pumping into the southbound canals was drastically curtailed last week after the water reached a maximum salt-level standard set by the state Water Resources Control Board. The water quality is critical to farmers and to fish and wildlife survival in the delta. The 738,000-acre estuary south of Sacramento provides water supplies to 80% of Californians. The Metropolitan Water District normally blends its saltier Colorado River water with the fresher water it receives from the delta via the state Water Project’s aqueduct, so increased delta salinity becomes a problem for Los Angeles as well.

Experts outlined the problem last week to the federal-state Cal-Fed governing committee, which is developing a long-range plan for management of the delta that will meet the water demands of farmers and city dwellers, protect fish and wildlife and restore an environment severely damaged over the years by state and federal pumping. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt attended the meeting to emphasize the need for reaching agreement on a plan during the coming year.

The prospects for 2000 depend largely on the weather. The long-term lesson for Southern California is that a critical water lifeline remains a tenuous thread until Cal-Fed cuts through competing demands and insists on a plan that will maintain a healthy delta.