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Delta -wide blueprint would be contro- versial and challenging, given the fact that the region encompasses so many counties and cities. Local governments are fiercely protective of their plan- ning duties and are adverse to the notion of surrendering jurisdiction to large - scale, eponymous regional planning entities. Marci Coglianese, a longtime Delta resident who has been active in many Delta forums, said the adverse conditions facing the region are emblematic of the struggles facing the state as a whole. "I think a better question is whether California is sustainable, given the relentless demands that unbridled growth and development are putting on our complex and fragile environment statewide," she said. "Should the Delta be abandoned and its fresh water rerouted so that we can build subdivisions on alluvial fans in the desert or irrigate subsided or water- logged ag land in the valley? How sustainable is that ?" Thousands of miles to the south- east of the Delta, events unfolded in summer 2005 that would be a precur- sor for the heightened attention on Delta levees. A hurricane of immense magnitude, labeled "Katrina" by weather forecasters, smashed into New Orleans, a city not unlike the Delta, at least in its geographic profile of being below sea level. Powered by a storm surge that brought the sea to the city's doorstep, levee failures inundated much of the city, taking lives and destroying property. The reverberations were felt in California, where the threats posed by levee failure in the Delta had been on the front burner following the release of a December 2004 scientific report that predicted a two - thirds chance of catastrophic levee failure in the Delta in the next 50 years. Early this year, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), in a dramatic presentation, outlined the dire consequences in the event of a major earthquake occurring within or very close to the Delta. Under the worst circumstances, MAY /JUNE 2006 multiple levee failures would com- pletely disrupt major water convey- ance systems, causing an untold economic impact to the state and, for that matter, the nation. "Hurricane Katrina was a wake -up call," said Assemblymember Lois Wolk, D- Davis, at the Water Educa- tion Foundation's Executive Briefing March 23 in Sacramento. "We've heard the ring and lifted the receiver. Now we have to determine how we respond to the call." Jolted by the threat facing the state, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year signed AB 1200 by Assemblymember John Laird, D -Santa Cruz, which directed DWR to assess the level of risk of Delta levee failures and to evaluate how to best protect the water supplies in the Delta as well as exports. A legislative analysis of the bill found the "most conservative" estimates of the economic impacts of multiple levee failures are $300 million to $500 million to agricultural users in the San Joaquin Valley and $500 million to $3 billion (emphasis added) to urban water districts. As DWR officials contemplated their plan for implementing the law, which also included an evaluation by the Department of Fish and Game of the options to restore salmon and other fish species, it became immedi- ately apparent that more than water is at stake in the Delta and that as such, a broader scope was necessary in order for the state to truly put its stamp on what the Delta's fate should be. Jerry Johns, DWR's deputy director for water resources planning and manage- ment, told members of the Bay -Delta Public Advisory Committee (BDPAC) in March that the bill's "water- centric" focus convinced him and other officials that it was necessary to "draw on a larger canvas" in order to evalu- ate which uses the Delta can continue to serve. At the same time, several entities have busied themselves with Delta planning activities, a process predi- cated on the mutually agreed upon assumption that the present uses and