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<br />o Dan Nelsenl., general manager of
<br />San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water
<br />Authority, disagteed. "It has yet to be
<br />determined if we would have been
<br />better off under the 1997 plan. The
<br />judge has not yct ruled," he said,
<br />adding that the 1997 plan was illegal -
<br />pointing out that Wanger agreed with
<br />this position when he threw it out.
<br />As for the 1997 plan itself, Nelson
<br />said models showed that it would have
<br />created a "water supply siwation that
<br />was not sustainable" for the agricul-
<br />tural contractors. "We had no choice
<br />but to sue," he said. "Interior backed
<br />us into a corner. We tried to do
<br />everything we could administratively
<br />to resolve it."
<br />While everyone awaits Wanger's
<br />final ruling, the question now, accord-
<br />ing to Bureau officials, is what can be
<br />done for W<lter users south of the Delta
<br />to improve the water supply situation.
<br />At a November briefing on the b2
<br />plan, the Bureau released a laundry list
<br />of ideas that could boost supplies ro
<br />sourh-orDelta contractors by as much
<br />as 150,000 acre-feet. Such measures
<br />include securing joint point of diver-
<br />sion for the CVP anti SWP, increasing
<br />SWP pumping in the Slimmer, tempo-
<br />rarily shifting water llsers from the
<br />CVP and SWP to other supphcs,
<br />acquiring water and leasing storage
<br />space south of the Delta.
<br />One of the most promising anions
<br />is to allow the CVP to lIse excess SWP
<br />pumping capacity to increase the
<br />federal share of water in San Luis
<br />Reservoir. DWR officials estimate they
<br />will fill the state's share of San Luis by
<br />mtd-February. At that point. the SWI'
<br />could help the Burcau fill the federal
<br />share of San Luis, increasing supplies
<br />for CVP contractors.
<br />Such plans to acquire water and
<br />restore CVP users' suppliers are not
<br />sufficient, according to the CVPW A.
<br />Instead, they say, Interior must
<br />develop aggressive plans to replace the
<br />800,000 acre-feet, whether ir goes to
<br />the environment or contractors.
<br />In the eyes of Lester Snow,
<br />regional director of the Bureau's Mid-
<br />Pacific Region, the long-term solution
<br />
<br />January/February 2000
<br />
<br />rests with rhe CALFED Bay.Delta
<br />Program. "You can't fix the system's
<br />problems just on the CVP. You can do
<br />anything you want to the CVP, but it
<br />won't fix the overall system," he said.
<br />"We have to work with the water
<br />supply program in CALFED. We can't
<br />recover the fish on the backs of the
<br />west side contractors."
<br />Contract Renewals
<br />When the CVP was built, contractors
<br />signed 40-year agreements with
<br />Interior that spelled~out their annual
<br />water allocations, water costs and
<br />shortage provisions for dry years. With
<br />most of these contracts expiring in the
<br />mid-1990s (a few in the Friant Divi-
<br />sion expired in the late 19805), one of
<br />the most contentious issues in the long
<br />debate over the CVPIA has been
<br />renewal of those contracts.
<br />Municipal and industrial contrac~
<br />tors and power customers were re-
<br />quired to repay their share of construc-
<br />tion costs plus interest. Agricultural
<br />contractors were not. In more recent
<br />years, this has generated controversy
<br />hy critics, who say federally subsidized
<br />water is used to grow federally subsi-
<br />dized crops. (Agriculture was not
<br />required to pay interest because the
<br />federal government wanted to encour-
<br />age farming in the West.)
<br />The CVI'IA reduced the maxi-
<br />mum contract term from 40 to 25
<br />years and established a three-tier
<br />pricing structure. Under this system,
<br />contractors were to pay the normal
<br />rate for 80 percent of their supply and
<br />full cost for the top 10 percent, which,
<br />for CVP irrigators, includes interest on
<br />thc project's capital costs. The middle
<br />tier of water was to be priced halfway
<br />between the top and bottom tiers. A
<br />portion of the increase in revenues
<br />was to be deposited in a new environ~
<br />mental restoration fund.
<br />Long-term contract renewal,
<br />however, was linked to completion of
<br />the Programmatic Environmental
<br />Impact Statement (PElS). Although
<br />the CVPIA required this document
<br />he completed by 1995, the final PElS
<br />was not released until October 1999.
<br />(See sidebar.) The delay postponed
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