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[it;' ~.~~' ("1 lJj l...) N o o ',M ~< :~}\ ~i~/" ~~~" i:/:: .::~: In late January, the Bureau's preliminary sOl1th~of~the Delta CVP water supply forecast predicted deliveries of 40 to 45 percent for west side farmers and 75 percent to Silicon Valley. Last year, farmers received a 70 percent supply. Above, San Luis Reservoir. 8 first announcement is the most conservative estimate.) There is some confusion over whether the plan will ultimately prevail. In his December ruling, Wanger determined that Interior has the authority to interpret the CVPIA and did not have to follow the water users' preferred measurement of CVP yield, the delivery capability during the 1928-1934 drought. Furthermore, he ruled that what is required is a rcliable measurement of CVP yield that is used for the 1999-2000 water year b2 measures. During a Jan. 5 conference call with attorneys in the case, Wanger said he alrcady had decided that the way irrigators wanted Interior to define yield was not required by thc statute. However, he also indicated that he wanted a court~appointed expert to assist him in determining whether the method used was within the described discretion. The expert was asked to address a long list of questions about the plan at a hearing conducted in late January-early February. All parties are now awaiting a ruling from that hearing. For now, Interior is moving ahead with the b2 plan for the 2000 water year, which runs from Oct. I, 1999, to Sept. 30. 2000. Because CVP Water Right Settlement and San Joaquin River Exchange contractors have prior water rights and Friant was exempted from b2, it is farmers in the San Luis & Delta,Mendota service area, including Westlands Water District, who stand to lose the most water. Laura King, director of strategic planning for San Luis & Delta- Mendota Water Authority, predicts the plan will result in land fallowing if it proceeds as is. "People are hoping that that allocation will go up; if not, as much as one-third of the land in our area will likely be fallowed," she said. In recent weeks, the debate has shifted to the political arena as west side water users pressure the Bureau, Gov. Davis and Babbitt to change the policy. How much leeway may exist is debatable. Some say if the federal government chose to un~do this b2 planl the environmentalists could sue. Others say Wanger's opinion made it clear Interior has great discretion in how it applies b2. Why not, they argue, use this discretion to lessen the impact on west side growers? Peltier acknowledged that such a decision would bring heat from environmentalists but contends "the CVPIA is not very much diffcrent from CALFED," he said. "There's going to have to be some political courage and spine to stand up to the fish regulatory agencies and the environmental community. The environment has plenty of water and yet they're always wanting more." Many people believed that the only way to settle the issue was in court. Others, however, say the San Joaquin Valley growers would have been bctter off if they had not sued and stuck with the 1997 plan. "I t is unfortunate because the impacts to the exporters would have been far less undcr the '97 plan than they are under the new planl but the lawsuit went against us on the '97 plan," Ploss said. "We put together this new plan and that was the plan accepted by the COllrt." Western Water