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<br />(.,., <br />In <br />C,) <br />C\J <br />c.- <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). 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