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Posted on 01/16/2003 11:54:46 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Southern California's four major water agencies have now been ordered to report to the governor's office after triggering a federally imposed, 201 billion-gallon cut of the region's Colorado River water supply.
Gov. Gray Davis announced this week that he is summoning representatives for the water agencies ---- the San Diego County Water Authority, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District and Coachella Valley Water District ---- to his office Tuesday in the hope of salvaging the still-up-in-the-air San Diego County-Imperial Irrigation District water transfer.
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"I remain convinced that all parties ... can and will reach an acceptable agreement," Davis stated in a letter he wrote late Tuesday to two state senators.
However, it remains unclear as to exactly what Davis can do to force a deal, because all issues involving water rights are legal ones, and have been historically adjudicated by the courts.
Davis is the latest to take a swing at forcing a deal. Already, the federal government has moved to punish the rural Irrigation District by cutting its Colorado River supply. Irrigation District leaders filed suit to stop that action Friday. And two democratic state senators have introduced legislation that would also cut the Irrigation District's water rights if they do not reach a deal.
The water transfer, which has been haggled over for more than seven years, is the linchpin of California's Quantification Settlement Agreement. That deal is the guts of California's promise to six other Western states that it would gradually reduce its historic overuse of the Colorado River, a promise that would give Southern California extra Colorado River water until 2015.
The federal Department of the Interior had given the agencies until Dec. 31, 2002, to complete the transfer, or face the immediate cut of Southern California's main water supply, the Colorado River.
Irrigation District board members actually approved a 45-year-long transfer agreement with the Water Authority on New Year's Eve. Under the terms of the deal, Imperial Valley farmers would eventually sell up to 65 billion gallons of water a year to San Diego County residents for roughly $50 million annually. If the deal went through, it would be the largest shift of water from agricultural to urban use in U.S. history.
But federal officials said the deal was unacceptable because it contained an "out clause" that would allow the agreement to die if state officials failed to come up with $350 million in cash and loan guarantees by Oct. 31.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bennett Raley has repeatedly said the federal water cut could still be lifted if the water agencies complete the transfer and settlement agreement.
Water Authority and Metropolitan Water District officials said Wednesday that the four agencies will meet in Davis' Sacramento office Tuesday, immediately after the state Senate's Agriculture and Water Resources Committee quizzes the agencies on the current state of the water deals.
Water Authority spokesman Dennis Cushman said Davis' intervention could be enough to reach an agreement.
"We think this is absolutely a critical step, and a welcome one as well," Cushman said. "The four agencies were very close to finishing work on the Quantification Settlement Agreement as 2002 drew to a close. The leadership of the governor is critical at this juncture to bringing the parties to an agreement."
Irrigation District officials could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Metropolitan officials, meanwhile, said that they were also hopeful that Davis' stepping in could resolve the issue.
That seemed to be a shift for Metropolitan from two weeks ago.
On Jan. 6, less than a week after federal officials said the Irrigation District's 45-year deal was unacceptable, Metropolitan General Manager Ron Gastelum said the agency ---- urban Southern California's major water provider ---- had enough water to last for the next 20 years, even with the federal water cut. Metropolitan officials initially said they had enough water to offset the cut for two years if Southern California drought conditions persisted.
Gastelum said the region might not need the "extra" 201 billion gallons it has routinely used for nearly a decade.
However, Metropolitan general counsel Jeff Kightlinger said Wednesday that the agency still would like to see a deal reached, and the water supply reinstated.
"We'd love to have the Quantification Settlement Agreement," Kightlinger said. "But if we don't have it, we'll live without it.
"People have asked what our reaction is to being 'called in.' I think it's very encouraging that the governor has directed his staff to take a hard look at this and to get it resolved."
Water officials thought at the beginning of 2002 that they would be able to reach agreement on the Water Authority-Irrigation District transfer; but the deal has been plagued ---- and reconfigured ---- by concerns over the financial cost of the harm the deal would do to California's largest lake, the Salton Sea.
Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.
1/16/03
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