[env-trinity] Capital Press 10/24/08

[Byron Leydecker]

Task Force report: Build peripheral canal
Project could threaten delta agriculture

Capital Press - 10/24/08

By Hank Shaw

Momentum is growing to construct a peripheral canal around the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but doing so could jeopardize the
century-old farming traditional in the estuary.

A task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger voted 6-0 last week to
recommend that the state build the canal in conjunction with the existing
method of moving fresh water through the delta toward the giant pumps near
Tracy.

On Friday, Oct. 17, the Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force issued its findings,
codified in a report that required five drafts to complete. Its chief
recommendation is to hold the environmental health of the estuary as a
co-equal to the needs of the farmers and citizens who rely on water from the
pumps.

Most experts agree something needs to be done to save the West's largest
estuary. 

Thousands of farmers and millions of urban residents drink water moved from
Northern California through the delta down to the State Water Project or
Central Valley Project aqueducts; the delta serves as the system's hub.

But the hub is rusty and broken. Levees that hold water back from the sunken
islands are old and leaky. Water quality has deteriorated enough to put the
area's ecosystem on the verge of collapse. The entire region is just an
earthquake away from disaster and even without a quake, sea levels are
rising enough to flood several islands within the next generation.

The estuary has been home to some of California's richest farmland since the
Gold Rush. Delta asparagus is world-famous and vegetables are the area's
moneymaker. Wheat, rice and corn are also grown there.

The prospects of the delta remaining so bountiful look dim.

The report released Friday does say that "Delta agriculture is the heart of
the regional economy and central to the delta's culture and sense of place."

Preserving agriculture in the delta will be a priority, even with the canal.
But not everywhere in the estuary. 

Farmers with land outside proposed floodplains and who aren't in the center
of the delta would fare the best. The report specifically says farming
should be promoted on Twitchell, Sherman and Jersey islands. 

What farming might look like under the new regime is unclear. The report
talks about farming for carbon sequestration or for wildlife - which in
practical terms means letting the land return to the tules that once covered
the estuary's network of islands.

Under the proposal, farmers who plant tules or other crops that lock in
greenhouse gases would get credit under the cap-and-trade program the state
is developing to fight global climate change. The farmers could then sell
that credit for cash.

Farmers in the center of the delta may be out of luck. UC-Davis scientist
Jay Lund, who helped develop a Public Policy Institute of California study
that influenced the task force's decisions, likened those farmers to miners
who have played out a mine.

"For some of those farmers, (who are) farming on islands that will be
flooded, they will be in a different business," Lund said at a forum on the
Peripheral Canal held last week. "Essentially we've mined those islands."

Tim Quinn, who leads the California Association of Water Agencies, said he
predicted that the state would have to buy out many central delta farmers.

"One thing that will happen to some of the landowners is that they'll have a
lot more money after this is all over and done with," Quinn said at the
forum.

Building the canal is by no means assured. 

There is little the task force recommends that can be done without approval
by the Legislature and a canal would likely need additional approval by
voters in a ballot measure.

Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders are expected to renew discussions
over both a canal and several new dams as part of a larger water bond this
winter; talks bogged down last year because of the budget crisis

 

 

Byron Leydecker, JCT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810

415 519 4810 cell

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)

http://fotr.org 

 <mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net>  

 

 

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