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Wednesday, 06 May 2009

It's no surprise that folks are headed to court over the riff between DWR and private landowners reluctant to grant the Department access for peripheral canal survey work. DWR sought permission to conduct surveys on private property as part of the planning process to decide if and where a new canal would be built to carry water from the Sacramento River to export pumps near Tracy.  About half of the landowners have granted permission to enter their property.

It's no secret that the Delta is broken and needs to be fixed. Separating export water from endangered fish is the logical answer to a huge problem with the state's water supply.  Many believe Delta landowner concerns over water supply andwater quality can be resolved but a lot of Delta residents do not.

Here's a big part of the problem:  The only ones suffering so far are south of Delta water users because of export restrictions designed to protect fish.  The fish populations continue to decline and millions of acre-feet of water flow out to the ocean, leaving huge swaths of San Joaquin Valley farmland unplanted because there isn't enough water.

One columnist representing fishermen this week likened Governor Schwarzenegger and DWR Director Lester Snow to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, calling the Governor's explanation of the water supply shortage "The Big Lie.

That kind of talk won't help. 

If interested parties are headed to court this early in the process I expect the road to fixing California's water supply system to be along and unpleasant one.  That's too bad.
 
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