Posted on 12/17/2002 1:17:36 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 16 — The Bush administration took steps today to cut water supplies to California next month if water agencies in the state fail to reach an agreement over disputed flows from the Colorado River.
Gale A. Norton, the secretary of the interior, said she signed documents today that would ensure that California loses access to extra flows of Colorado River water beginning Jan. 1 if there was no agreement by the end of this month.
In years past, the state has typically drawn 800,000 acre-feet of surplus water, or enough for about 1.6 million households, beyond its allotment of 4.4 million acre-feet. Although there is enough stored water for the next two years or so, water officials in Southern California said the cutoff would have serious consequences after that.
"We are at a turning point in the history of the Colorado River," Ms. Norton said. "The issue is not whether, but when, California will live within its apportionment."
Ms. Norton made her remarks here at a conference of water officials from across the West that was dominated by last-minute efforts to salvage a plan to reduce California's dependence on the Colorado River. She would not say what other measures might be taken against the state should it ultimately reject the plan, which was intended to end fighting among seven Western states.
But Ms. Norton warned that getting extra water from the river would be much tougher for California without the plan.
"The bar will be raised," she said.
Under the plan, California was given 15 years to wean itself from the surplus if several water agencies in Southern California agreed by Dec. 31 to transfer some water to cities from farms. Last week, one of those agencies, the Imperial Irrigation District, broke ranks and refused to go along with a transfer of 200,000 acre-feet of its water to nearby San Diego County.
The decision angered water officials from the seven states that draw from the Colorado River, including other water districts in California. At the annual meeting here of the Colorado River Water Users Association, the delegation from the Imperial district was denounced by top water officials, one of whom described relations with the district as openly hostile.
"I think they are making a mockery of everyone," said Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District.
Andy Horne, a member of the Imperial district, said the district was not going to "buckle under" the pressure. He said board members remained worried about the district's responsibilities regarding the Salton Sea, which would be environmentally harmed by the reduced agricultural runoff resulting from the transfer.
"It will be well into the next year before any of these issues can be resolved," Mr. Horne said.
The Bush administration still hopes that a deal can be brokered before the end of the month. Ms. Norton said that her chief adviser on water, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bennett W. Raley, would spend the next couple of days trying to save the plan.
In her remarks, Ms. Norton suggested nothing would be left off the table should there be no agreement, including a review of pending orders from water districts for next year's supplies.
That stirred concern among some officials with the Imperial district, particularly since the district receives nearly three-quarters of the state's allotment of 4.4 million acre-feet each year.
"By December, all of the fields are planted," said Lloyd Allen, a member of the Imperial board."They can't go cutting the water order now without some good reason."
That's a hoot. The Salton Sea is man-made by an accidental water release. And now we have to be worried about enviornmental damage to it?
The Salton Basin is an 8,360 square mile, closed, sub-sea level basin in the low desert of southern California and northern Mexico. The basin is actually part of the Colorado River delta: in the last thousand years, the Colorado River has meandered west and filled the basin at least three times forming a freshwater lake called Lake Cahuilla. Each time, the River eventually returned to its more easterly channel leaving the lake to evaporate.
The Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when massive flooding caused the Colorado River to break through an irrigation canal headwork and flow freely into the Salton Basin for 18 months. Since then, the Sea's existence has been maintained primarily by agricultural return flows from the Imperial, Coachella, and Mexicali Valleys.
The Salton Sea is California's largest lake. At a surface elevation of 227 feet below sea level, it has a surface area of 243,718 acreas (381 square miles). The maximum depth of the Sea is about 51 feet and the average depth 31 feet. The annual inflow to the Sea averages about 1,300,000 acre-feet, carrying approximately 4,000,000 tons of dissolved salt.
Values of the Salton Sea
Below an elevation of -220 feet, the Salton Sea is designated by the federal government as a repository for agricultural drainage. Without this use of the Sea, land in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys would be too water logged and/or saline for agriculture.
So that's out.
I imagine the state legislature will pass a utopian law mandating that a desalination plant be built with solar power in the next decade. They seem to think that passing laws is a magic wand.
That would still leave Berkeley attached, so it would accomplish little...
Of course it's an option.
Kalifornicators aren't smart enough to choose it.
But it's still an option.
Well, half of Berkely...
;^)
Be very careful what you wish for.
California bashers, go ahead and bash, but the fact remains that a)the farmers in California are as conservative as any of us here, and b)California is the leading agricultural state in the Union. Taking water from farms and giving it to cities only makes the problems worse by concentrating people together in liberal areas like San Mateo County, LA County and San Francisco County. Is that what we want??
Scroll down to the bottom of every page on this site: Fresno is in the conservative heart of this schizophrenic state.
I expect all of the beer companies will support this move
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