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<br />Land Letter <br /> <br />'tit 0/ cO <br /> <br />Page 1 of2 <br /> <br />'-..:~~, <br /> <br /> <br />~ SEARCHABLE <br />STORY ARCHIVE <br /> <br />~ SPECIAL REPORTS <br />.. KEY DOCUMENTS <br /> <br />Update for Thursday <br />April 10, 2003 <br /> <br />SALTON SEA <br /> <br />Raley plan would allow 'paper transfer' of water to save lake <br /> <br />Dan Berman, Land Letter editor <br /> <br />A simple accounting maneuver may be the solution to the long-standing dilemma of providing water to save <br />the Salton Sea while allowing California to retain surplus water supplies from the Colorado River and avoid <br />violating federal law. <br /> <br />The Interior Department plan would allow the ImDerial Irrigation District to swap water it takes from the <br />Colorado River with Another California agen<q' that gets its water from another source, such as the <br />Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. That would allow 110 to provide water flows for the <br />beleaguered Salton Sea and ~idestep a federal mandate that all Colorado River water be put to "beneficial <br />use." <br />-..... <br /> <br />Interior has lon~ said that direct deliveries of Colorado River water to the Salton2ea are iIIea~1 aod...not a <br />f>en~ficiAI use 0 the water. <br /> <br />Four water agencies -- 110, MWD, the San Diego County Water Authority and Coachella Valley Water <br />District -- have agreed on a series of documents called the QuantifiC!'ltion SettlementAQreement to manage <br />California's annual 4.4 million acre-feet water take from the Colorado River, including the proposed transfer <br />of 300,000 acre-feet annually from the Imperial Valley to San Diego and the Coachella Valley (Land Letter, <br />March 20). <br /> <br />However, 90 percent of the entire inflow to the Salton Sea is agricultural runoff from the Imperial, Coachella <br />and Mexicali valleys, and the reduction of water from the Imperial Valley could be disastrous. The issue has <br />been a thorn in negotiations from day one. <br /> <br />Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science Bennett Raley endorsed the idea in a letter to the <br />California Department of Water Resources last week. "This approach would allow the department to assure <br />itself and the other Colorado River basin states that all the Colorado River water diverted by California is <br />placed to beneficial use for authorized purposes, and that "lake-up or mitiQation water delivered !Q.!he <br />~Iton Sea is derived from other sOlJrC'.es," Raley said. . <br /> <br />The transfer would essentially be a "water accounting" maneuver and would not involve the actual <br />movement of water across the state, ~aley told report~rs April 4. <br /> <br />Until last week, Interior officials insisted that California's need to agree on the QSA documents and reduce <br />its take of Colorado River water from 5.2 million acre-feet to its legal limit of 4.4 million acre-feet is separate <br />from the issue of the future of the Salton Sea. <br /> <br />Environmentalists and others working on Salton Sea restoration plans disagree, citing the intense effect the <br />300,000 acre-feet transfer would have on the lake. Bureau of Reclamati~n sDokesman KiD Whit@. said <br />Interior has had its mind on the issue of water flows to the sea. "Even though it is a separate issue, it is an <br />issue" that Interior and the water agencies must address, he said. <br /> <br />http://www.eenews.net/LandletterlBackissues/041003/04100309.htm <br /> <br />4/1 0/2003 <br />