Western Water May/June 2006

• Year: 2006
• Title: Western Water
• Author: Water Education Foundation
• Description: Developing a Delta Vision
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

highway and rail lines, and likely
destroy natural gas and oil pipelines.
Thousands of acres of farmland and as
many as 3,000 homes would be
flooded. Emergency preparedness
officials say the magnitude of the
disaster would completely overwhelm
their response capability.
"We tried to develop a scenario
with the probability of occurring once
in 300 years," said Lester Snow,
director of DWR. "That was about the
same as the Katrina event, so it may
sound like it's a rare situation, but
Katrina points out to us that it can
happen and have devastating conse-
quences."
Those consequences could lead to
a permanent realignment of the state's
water portfolio should the Delta cease
to be a viable conveyance system.
Modifications might be made to
convey San Joaquin River water,
which DWR notes is of lower quality
and would be delivered at lesser
amounts. Notwithstanding the efforts
made to diversify southern California's
water sources, the long -term impacts
of a shuttered SWP /CVP would be
"devastating," said Joe Grindstaff,
executive director of the CBDA.
Tom Zuckerman, a lawyer repre-
senting local Delta water interests,
defends the Delta's integrity, noting at
the Executive Briefing that "I don't
think we have a hopeless situation."
He acknowledged the existence of
foundation problems on some levees
and rates of subsidence that are
"disturbing," as well as the risk to the
state /federal water delivery capability.
Nonetheless, the problems are not so
pervasive that the Delta should be
abandoned.
"What isn't true ... is that this is a
generalized problem," he said, adding
that the seismic risk is confined to the
Delta's western edge and that "not
every mile of levee has a poor founda-
tion problem." As for the subsidence
problem, it is "not widespread," instead
encompassing an area of 100,000 acres
of the 600,000 acres cultivated.
The specter of a Delta disaster
prompted Sen. Dianne Feinstein and
MAY /JUNE 2006
Rep. Richard Pombo, R- Tracy, to
request the drafting of an emergency
response and evacuation plan for the
region. In a March 29 letter to state
and federal disaster response agencies,
Feinstein and Pombo noted that a
catastrophic Delta flood "could easily
exceed" the devastation caused by
Hurricane Katrina and that "more
must be done" on an emergency
preparedness and response level.
While Delta interests grapple with
the implied consequences that lurk
behind DWR's warning, they must also
confront current pressing matters at
the root of the Delta's predicament.
Resident fish have taken a noticeable
hit, with dwindling numbers of
different species across the board,
including the Delta smelt, which has
been described as on the brink of
extinction. Biologists know the
numbers are decreasing but are unable
to pin the cause on any one factor.
Rather, it is a combination of poor
conditions, not excluding water
diversions, that have contributed to
the precipitous decline of resident fish
species.
For many, the Delta's woes play a
bit like "Back to the Future" in that
the conditions of today seem awfully
reminiscent of the pre - CALFED era
when the estuary was in crisis. Quinn,
who has participated in Delta issues
throughout, said that unlike the
tumultuous 1990s, urban and agricul-
tural water agencies today are more in
tune with one another and that while
pelagic fish species may be in trouble,
salmon, their anadromous cousins, "are
doing pretty well." He said the Delta
Vision Process has the opportunity to
lay a major cornerstone for a viable,
sustainable Delta.
"It depends on what the governor
does because I think the process here
could be important," he said. "From a
substantive perspective, CALFED did
a lot of good things [but] made a lot of
mistakes."
Because the CALFED Record of
Decision (ROD) was made to proceed
with "smaller incremental steps"
instead of major structural changes,