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... . . .: ,. Debate 'warming' over Calif. water supply: Climate change is expected to alter California's hydrology in dramatic ways. Scientists predict the available supply of water may not be able to meet demand, while the existing levee and reservoir systems will be insufficient to contain spring flooding. Finding solutions and ways to pay for them already is proving contentious, opening a new chapter in California's ongoing saga of water wars. The debate has pitted farmers and metropolitan water planners who argue for more dams and canals against environmentalists and Democrats who control the Legislature. They favor conservation and oppose any measures that will leave a heavy imprint on the environment. Yet scientific models show the state's water supply to be the natural resource most vulnerable to the effects of rising global temperatures. The state's leading scientists and hydrologists generally agree on the potential consequences. Among them: · The Sierra snowpack is expected to shrink and melt faster, leaving insufficient supplies for cities, farms and hydroelectric plants during the hottest months of summer and fall, when demand is greatest. · Prolonged droughts along the Colorado River will force California and six other Western states to reduce how much they draw from the river. · A rising Pacific Ocean will push salty ocean water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of the state's water-delivery system. That could jeopardize the fresh water supplies for 23 million Californians - two-thirds of the state's population. · Earlier melting of the snowpack coinciding with spring storms could overwhelm any part of the 1,600 miles of earthen levees, flooding Central Valley communities that have seen an explosion of suburban growth in recent years. The most crucial piece of California's water system is the snowpack that builds each winter along the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada. It acts as California's natural reservoir, holding a third of the state's water for drinking and irrigation. For decades, the natural cycle has remained relatively unchanged: The snowpack builds through winter and early spring, then melts gradually from late spring through midsummer. That allows the reservoirs to fill and state water managers to release the water in late summer and fall, operating on a schedule that satisfies cities and farmers. Warming temperatures already are beginning to disrupt that pattern. Read the entire story here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-07-californiawaterN.htm 17