[env-trinity] More News Articles on Privatization of Federal Water Facilities

[Byron Leydecker]

Central Valley farmers may get partial ownership of reservoir - Associated
Press

 

Federal plan would cede control of water - Los Angeles Times

 


Land deal proposed as selenium solution; A transfer to irrigators would help
them pay to clean up drainage - Sacramento Bee


 

Deal on Delta suit goes to Congress; State, users would get partial
ownership of system; farmers would give up claims on water, take on draining
duties - Contra Costa Times

 

 

 

Central Valley farmers may get partial ownership of reservoir

Associated Press - 2/16/07

By Garance Burke, staff writer

 

FRESNO, Calif. - The federal government wants to give Central Valley farmers
partial ownership of a massive reservoir to settle a lawsuit over drainage
problems that led to the deaths and deformations of birds and other
creatures, according to a draft plan obtained by The Associated Press.

The complex deal would transfer the federal government's stake in the San
Luis Reservoir, pumping plants and miles of canals to some of the country's
biggest farming operations, who also would gain rights to a large percentage
of the water stored there.

In exchange, farmers would be responsible for disposing of toxic runoff and
cleaning up thousands of acres of tainted land that is too salty for crops
after intensive irrigation.

Shifting that cost over to the private sector would save the federal
government about $2.5 billion, said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman
Jeff McCracken.

Environmentalists and congressional representatives briefed on the plan
Thursday expressed surprise at the proposal, which was entirely different
from previous plans.

"It's being suggested now that one of the most significant environmental
problems in the history of western water can be resolved by privatizing a
major piece of the largest water project in the West," said Rep. George
Miller, D-Martinez. "Is this new plan really in the best interest of the
taxpayers?"

The San Luis Reservoir, located just off Interstate 5 between Los Banos and
Gilroy, holds 2.5 million acre feet of water, almost one-third of which is
used each year to irrigate the arid Westlands Water District.

Westlands is the nation's largest water district and includes giants of
agribusiness, such as Harris Farms, one of California's biggest farming
operations and Tanimura & Antle, the nation's top lettuce grower.

Westlands farmers and those who belong to nearby water districts have been
banned from disposing of agricultural runoff since the 1980s when millions
of migratory birds were born deformed after nesting at Kesterson Wildlife
Refuge, where federal officials initially routed the poisonous drainage.

Irrigation runoff here carries concentrated levels of selenium, a naturally
occurring trace element that washes down from the volcanic mountain range
flanking the valley's western edge. Few realized selenium was toxic when
agricultural water was first pumped into Kesterson, which is part of the
26,609-acre San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, about 80 miles northwest of
Fresno.

After the environmental disaster, the bureau stopped allowing the drainage
to flow into Kesterson.

In 1995, the Westlands Water District sued, claiming federal officials who
run the Central Valley Project _ a massive irrigation complex that makes
farming possible in the arid western half of the valley _ reneged on their
obligation to help them dispose of the tainted water.

Officials have proposed numerous solutions as the case has traveled through
the courts.

One of the bureau's proposals, favored by some environmentalists, was to
retire vast tracts of farmland altogether. Other ideas included building
huge ponds to evaporate the drain water, or piping it into the delta.

The new plan to give farmers partial ownership of the reservoir _ which
Westlands officials said was developed with nine other irrigation districts,
the bureau and the California Department of Water Resources _ still is far
from final. Such broad changes would require congressional approval.

"No one has a greater interest in solving the drainage problem than the
farmers," said Tom Birmingham, Westlands general manager and general
counsel.

The plan would give the 10 districts the annual rights to 1.1 million acre
feet of water, the largest water right granted since the 1950s, McCracken
said. Information was not immediately available about the conditions under
which that water would be provided in dry years, or in relation to other
water users like cities and rivers upstream.

Bill Walker, who tracks federal subsidies in agriculture, blasted the
proposal.

"This deal may seem to relieve taxpayers of the costs of the drain, but it
gives away more of California's most precious resource - water - to a group
of irrigators who already receive millions of dollars in crop, water and
energy subsidies," said Walker, a vice president of the Oakland-based
Environmental Working Group.

Westlands farmers and those who belong to nearby water districts have been
banned from disposing of agricultural runoff since the 1980s when millions
of migratory birds were born deformed after nesting at Kesterson Wildlife
Refuge, where federal officials initially routed the poisonous drainage. #

http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2007/02/16/ap-state-ca/d8nal4cg0.txt

 

 

Federal plan would cede control of water

Los Angeles Times - 2/16/07

By Bettina Boxall, staff writer

 

The federal government would give a huge block of water as well as partial
control of a large reservoir to powerful Central Valley agricultural
interests under a possible agreement aimed at resolving a long-standing
farm-drainage problem.

The complicated proposal amounts to an unprecedented restructuring of the
federal Central Valley Project, the country's largest water-supply
operation.

The project's biggest customer, Westlands Water District, would drop out of
the system, and along with neighboring irrigators would assume the rights to
a million acre-feet of water - more than the city of Los Angeles consumes in
a year.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the project, would also
forgive a debt of nearly half a billion dollars the irrigators owe for
construction of the mammoth project.

In return, the federal government would no longer be under obligation to fix
a vexing San Joaquin Valley drainage problem that could cost U.S. taxpayers
several billion dollars to solve.

"This goes beyond anything we've ever considered in its scope," Bureau of
Reclamation spokesman Jeffrey McCracken said. 

The proposal, which would require congressional approval, is under
discussion and has not been endorsed by the reclamation bureau, which
Thursday briefed members of Congress and Interior officials.

In divorcing Westlands and the project, the plan would end a contentious
relationship between the two and give Westlands, the most powerful
irrigation district in the state, even more clout.

"It gives us an opportunity to be in greater control of our own destiny,"
said Westlands general manager Tom Birmingham.

The reclamation bureau would transfer its state water rights permit for a
million acre-feet, roughly a sixth of its entire statewide deliveries, to a
joint powers authority formed by Westlands and other irrigators in the San
Luis unit of the project, on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

The amount is what irrigators have typically gotten from the project, but
400,000 acre-feet less than what their federal contracts call for -
effectively freeing up that quantity for other uses in the federal system
during good water years.

The federal government would also transfer ownership of the San Luis
Reservoir near Los Banos to the joint authority and the state, which uses
about half of the reservoir to store supplies for the State Water Project.

The implications of the proposal were not entirely clear Thursday. McCracken
and Birmingham both said that because the water Westlands was taking over
would continue to be pumped by federal facilities from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, the deliveries would still be subject to endangered species
and other environmental restrictions. 

Spokesmen for the state and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California, which gets water from the San Luis Reservoir, said they would
evaluate the proposal but were not prepared to comment.

Longtime critics of the bureau and Westlands were not so reserved. 

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) said the plan amounted to the privatization
of a large part of the West's biggest water project and would leave up to
the irrigators how to solve a serious environmental problem.

"Do we really want to give these water users this kind of control over so
much water?" Miller said in a statement. "Is this new plan really in the
best interest of the taxpayers? Given all of the possible ramifications, it
will be important for Congress to go through this proposal with a
fine-toothed comb." #

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water16feb16,1,1867158.story?coll=la
-headlines-california

 


Land deal proposed as selenium solution; A transfer to irrigators would help
them pay to clean up drainage


Sacramento Bee - 2/16/07


By David Whitney, staff writer


 

A proposal for federal transfer of a big piece of the Central Valley Project
to irrigators, so that they can pay for disposal of selenium-laced drain
water polluting tens of thousands of acres of farmland, was floated on
Capitol Hill on Thursday.

The initial reactions ranged from skepticism to outright praise.

 

The proposal, described as a "concept for collaboration" between the Bureau
of Reclamation and 10 irrigation districts led by kingpin Westlands Water
District, would transfer at no cost the federal portion of the CVP's San
Luis Unit -- reservoirs, pumping plants, roughly 100 miles of canals and
possibly even power plants -- to a joint powers authority that irrigators
would create to pay for cleaning up the drainage mess.

 

While the joint powers authority would own the system, the bureau still
would be in charge of how much water is moved through the system, and the
maximum amount flowing to irrigators would be cut by about 30 percent.

 

"We are still in the preliminary stages of this," Kirk C. Rodgers, the
bureau's regional director from Sacramento, said. "This represents a
remarkable promise for a good deal. ... I am willing to put a lot of effort
into this solution."

 

Rodgers said in an interview that without this approach, or something like
it, the cost of fixing the drainage problem, and the attendant selenium
toxicity threatening wildlife, could reach as high as $2.6 billion -- almost
three times the agency's entire annual budget.

 

"There are times when we are talking about over $500 million a year for a
reasonable construction schedule," Rodgers said.

Tom Birmingham, Westland's executive director, called the sketchy deal "an
opportunity to solve one of the most serious resources problems in the San
Joaquin Valley."

 

Reaction on Capitol Hill was hard to get Thursday, but what little there was
suggested, as one congressional aide said, that the proposal "is not dead on
arrival."

 

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, a leading House environmental voice and
policy adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said that
while he has questions about it, the drain problem is so serious that the
proposal deserves close scrutiny.

 

"It's being suggested now that one of the most significant environmental
problems in the history of Western water can be resolved by privatizing a
major piece of the largest water project in the West," Miller said in a
statement.

 

"Do we really want to give these water users this kind of control over so
much water?" he said. "What will this mean for the future of our state's
water and for California's economic growth? Is this new plan really in the
best interest of the taxpayers? 

 

Given all of the possible ramifications, it will be important for Congress
to go through this proposal with a fine-toothed comb."

 

The proposal received a more enthusiastic reception from Central Valley
lawmakers.

 

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said he is fully supportive and likely would
introduce legislation authorizing the deal when all the details are worked
out.

 

"At first glance, I believe this has merit and is a cost-effective way to
solve this problem," he said. "I think they should be commended for thinking
outside the box."

 

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, also was backing the proposal, said his press
aide, Spencer Pederson.

 

Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral that in the right amounts is
necessary for good health. It is so prevalent on federally irrigated
portions of the Central Valley, however, that it must be flushed along with
other salts to keep some of the state's most productive lands in use.

 

But that drain water cannot percolate through a layer of clay beneath the
soil, and the result has been the inundation of tens of thousands of acres
where the contaminated brew collects.

 

The bureau has tried various ways of dealing with the drain water, including
directing it into Kesterson Reservoir. But after deformed waterfowl were
found there in 1983, releases were halted two years later.

 

Irrigators filed a lawsuit against the bureau to force it to clean up the
problem, and a court has ordered it to do so. Last summer, just as the
bureau was about to file its decision on how it planned to do that,
irrigators and the agency announced they were going to try to resolve the
matter through negotiations. #

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/124523.html

 

 

Deal on Delta suit goes to Congress; State, users would get partial
ownership of system; farmers would give up claims on water, take on draining
duties

Contra Costa Times - 2/16/07

By Mike Taugher, staff writer

 

The nation's largest irrigation district would take partial ownership of an
important dam, canals and pumping plants in exchange for giving up claims to
water and relieving the federal government of its obligation to drain
tainted water from the western San Joaquin Valley under a proposal presented
to members of Congress on Thursday.

 

It is the latest attempt to settle a decades-long conundrum of how to
dispose of selenium-tainted farm runoff that was once destined to be dumped
in the Delta near Antioch. The broad outline of the lawsuit settlement has
not been endorsed by any federal agency and requires approval of Congress,
where key members on Thursday sounded guarded about its implications.

 

"We need to learn much more about this proposed settlement," Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an e-mail. "Whether this settlement is just or
not, I simply cannot answer at this time."

 

Under the proposal, a list of ideas still being developed by the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation and several water agencies, farmers would take over the
federal government's court-ordered obligation to drain their farms. They
would also give up claims to 400,000 acre-feet of water -- enough for about
800,000 homes -- and they would turn over another 43,000 acre-feet of water
to regulators to be used for environmental purposes.

 

In exchange, the federal government would hand over ownership of key
portions of the water system south of Silicon Valley to water users and to
the state. The facilities to be transferred include San Luis Dam and
Reservoir.

 

Farmers also would be assured of getting more reliable water supplies and
would be forgiven $490 million in debt for dams, canals and pumps.

 

Critics of the deal said it overstates the environmental benefits because
farmers rarely get the 400,000 acre-feet of water to which they would
relinquish claims in expiring contracts.

 

"If they're willing to take 400,000 off (a more modest claim), then you can
have a conversation," said Tom Graff, regional director for Environmental
Defense in Oakland.

 

At issue is how to dispose of tainted runoff from some of the 600 farms in
the sprawling Westlands Water District, which lies just east of Interstate 5
and stretches from the Fresno County towns of Firebaugh and Mendota south to
Kettleman City. Runoff from western San Joaquin Valley farms was blamed for
gross bird deformities at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in the
1980s.

 

After that disaster, the wildlife refuge was closed, farm drains were
plugged and the Westlands district was left without a place to dispose of
its water. The federal government is now under court order to provide
drainage service and has considered buying out farmers and fallowing land,
piping the runoff into the Delta near Antioch or to Morro Bay or treating
the water. All of those options have proved difficult.

 

Tom Birmingham, Westlands' general manager, said the district would resolve
the drainage problems by reducing the amount of runoff and allowing the rest
to evaporate. This would be done by first retiring 100,000 acres of the
600,000-acre Westlands district and then improving water-use efficiency on
the rest of the district's cropland. The remaining runoff would be reused to
irrigate salt-tolerant crops such as pistachios and some forage grasses.

 

Finally, the runoff from those fields would be sprinkled on gravel beds
instead of evaporation ponds so that birds would not be attracted and
exposed to contaminants.

 

The drainage improvements would be financed by payments that farmers would
otherwise make to the government, in part to repay the $490 million owed to
taxpayers that would be forgiven if the plan is approved.

 

"We see this as an opportunity to implement in a timely manner a viable
solution to the drainage without having to rely on federal appropriations,"
Birmingham said.

 

He said the proposal is a good deal for taxpayers because the reclamation
bureau has estimated the cost of draining the district at more than $2
billion.

 

But Graff, of Environmental Defense, said farmers might be obligated to
repay the government for any drainage improvements.

 

In any case, turning over key facilities now owned by the federal government
to resolve that problem is certain to be controversial.

 

"It's being suggested now that one of the most significant environmental
problems in the history of western water can be resolved by privatizing a
major piece of the largest water project in the West," Rep. George Miller,
D-Martinez, said in a statement. "This would be an unprecedented
development, to say the least, and you have to give them an A for
creativity."

 

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, whose district includes the Westlands district,
said he supports the proposal.

 

"It's not like the Bureau of Reclamation can just walk away from this. It's
a far better deal for the taxpayers," Costa said. #

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/16712996.htm

 

 

 

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