Laserfiche WebLink
<br />and other water users. In reality, the process, because it involves so many parties, might be more- accurately labeled, <br />not an Indian water settlement, but a greater Arizona water settlement. <br /> <br />The most comprehensive approach to developing stakeholder consensus on an entire watershed is now <br />undelWay in the Central Valley of California. As that desert blossomed into vast tracts of irrigated agriculture, rivers <br />like the San Joaquin disappeared into irrigation canals. Huge pumps sucked water from the Delta, sending it south to <br />the thirsty cities of southern California. The great salmon stocks that once ran from the Pacific to the Sierra declined <br />toward extinction. <br /> <br />In 1993, the Department and the state of California convened stakeholders in a protracted negotiation that <br />lead to the Bay Delta Accord of 1994. The process was then formalized into Cal-Fed, charged by Governor Wilson <br />and President Clinton with working toward a comprehensive water resource plan. In 1994, California voters signaled <br />their support for this process by approving a billion-dollar water bond issue. Congressional support has followed. <br /> <br />Many similar processes are now undelWay in Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and other states. Each of them is <br />characterized by a desire to step away from stale ideological arguments, to get down on the ground, and to fmd <br />workable compromises that will enable every community to prosper and to live in harmony with Creation. And that <br />is our task for the coming century. <br /> <br />### <br /> <br />28 <br />