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solution. But Steve Hall, executive director of the Association of Califor- nia Water Agencies, told audience members at the Executive Briefing the "much more real threat" is that southern Californians will "write off' the Delta and refuse further invest- ment toward it based on the belief they have established independence of its supplies. Kightlinger acknowledged it is difficult to convince his customers of the Delta's pressing needs but that he does not expect a "got -to -have the Peripheral Canal kind of debate" to occur anytime soon. "It is not realistic or practical for us to be truly indepen- dent of the Delta," he said. Fiack, who commends the idea of the Delta Vision Process moving forward under the auspices of the Resources Agency and the Business, Housing and Transportation Agency, said her fear would be if it ended up like CALFED, "with all these pro- cesses and none of them connected." CUWA, in a March 31 letter to Grindstaff, expressed the concern that a Delta Vision Process not be "overly broad in scope and more oriented towards process than outcome." "This process can only succeed if specific goals and milestones are developed at the start, and a high priority placed on developing specific proposed actions and producing useful products. Like any large process, defining the nature of `success' is essential at the beginning," wrote Steve Macaulay, CUWA executive director. CALFED's future may exist in a reorganization that places it within the Resources Agency with a new divisional structure — strategic plan- ning, program performance and training, science, communications and administration. Commenting on the proposal, Grindstaff said the identification of performance measures "is clearly an area where we need to make major improvements." "Water for the environment is at the heart of what's going on here," he said. "We need to know that if we're going to live up to the commitments of the ROD, then what are we going to do? We need to get a much more defined plan." Johns said performance measures have to be those "that you know you have the data today to support and track instead of designing ultimate performance measures and having it sit on the shelf someplace." In contrast to CALFED's original focus of improving the health of the estuary while stabilizing water delivery capability, Delta visioning means balancing what is good for the state as a whole with the interests of Delta communities taken into consideration — not an easy proposition by any means. In recognizing what's in the best interest of the Delta environment, science experts note that policies must be tailored around the fact that the Delta is a changed environment that is not static. "We are not going to restore the Delta because it's so changed, so different, we can't even approach going back to what it once was," said Peter Moyle, a University of Califor- nia, Davis professor who was part of a Delta panel discussion at the Execu- tive Briefing. Because of the Delta's constant change, Moyle said a useful vision would be to create a variety of habitats and recognize change is going to occur "but try to direct the change rather than just letting it occur willy - nilly." Moyle said the proposed pumping increase of the SWP "is clearly not good for fish," and that state and federal officials need to think about how to better operate the system to benefit the ecosystem. "I think we are at the stage now where it's time for some really bold initiatives," he said. "We should consider greatly reducing pumping or even shutting it down for a year to see what the response is to the ecosystem." Grindstaff defended the "opera- tional flexibility" strategy in which the pumps are engaged at various times, depending on available water and fisheries concerns. "Sometimes I wish it wasn't the distraction that it is today, because we spend so much time talking about what is marginal in terms of what's going to happen in the Delta," he said. "We are talking about a 1 or 2 percent change at most and I am frustrated that when there are huge issues out there we have to spend a lot of time talking about how we are operating the system when there's a marginal change at best." Those intimately familiar with the Delta have the unique perspective