Feinstein: Action needed now on water crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C.
April 16, 2009 4:38pm

Saying much of the Central Valley is teetering on the brink of economic disaster because of a lack of normal water flows for farm and ranch irrigation, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is calling for a “targeted” strategy to address the problem.

“The lack of water threatens to decimate the Valley economy, and some cities are already struggling with unemployment rates between 25 and 45 percent. We must reverse this trend,” says Ms. Feinstein in a letter to Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources. The letter was released Thursday afternoon by the senator’s office.

Ms. Feinstein says a targeted strategy must be developed to address the severe water crisis for farms in California’s Central Valley.

The letter follows a meeting convened last week by the senator to bring together the major stakeholders – farmers, ranchers, and state and federal water and wildlife officials – to discuss possible solutions for the drought, including the need to move water south of the Delta.

One answer being considered, according to the letter, is giving the Department of Water Resources authority from the State Water Resources Control Board to use the State Water Project Banks Pumping Plant to pump water for the users of the Central Valley Project.

“If the San Joaquin Valley farmers know soon that they will be receiving additional water after June 30, they can begin drawing down existing water supplies now and keep additional lands in agricultural production this year,” Ms. Feinstein says.

Also revealed in the letter is a state effort to find volunteers from the Sacramento Valley and elsewhere “for its Drought Water Bank to seek to transfer 200,000 to 400,000 acre feet of water supplies to San Joaquin Valley agriculture.”

From the meeting, Mr. Snow agreed to ask the state officials tasked with managing the state’s fish and wildlife refuges that rely on water delivered by the Central Valley Water Project to pitch in.

“The refuges are now receiving a 100 percent allocation of Level 2 water supplies while south-of-Delta agricultural users are currently getting a 0 percent allocation. This discrepancy appears inconsistent with the Central Valley Improvement Act’s requirement that there be ‘a reasonable balance’ between refuge and agricultural water supplies,” the senator writes.

“Agreement by the state refuges to voluntarily transfer a portion of their water supply would go a long way to restoring jobs and maintaining permanent crops in the San Joaquin Valley. I understand that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering making a similar request of the federal refuges,” says Ms. Feinstein.

“If we are going to make a difference for the San Joaquin Valley’s water supply this year, significant steps also need to be taken by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Westlands Water District, and the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority,” she says.

“This is a crisis that requires action and decisiveness,” the senator says.