By Barry Eberling
November 4th, 2009
DAILY REPUBLIC
FAIRFIELD — Solano County officials on Wednesday had muted to unenthusiastic responses to the state's new $11 billion plan to fix the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he'll sign the five-bill package passed Wednesday by the Legislature. The goal is to keep Delta water flowing to 25 million Californians while also keeping the Delta ecosystem from further deteriorating because of water exports.
“Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California,” Schwarzenegger said in a press release. “Without clean, reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow and we cannot prosper. That is why I'm so proud that the Legislature, Democrats and Republicans, came together and tackled one of the most complicated issues in our state's history.”
Solano County Supervisor Mike Reagan had a different reaction to the package.
“We won some, we lost some,” said Reagan, whose district includes the eastern county near Rio Vista that is part of the Delta.
He's wary that a seven-member Delta Stewardship Council called for in the legislation might try to expand its land use authority beyond the primary Delta zone. Members will be for the most part appointed and unelected, with only one person required to be from the Delta, Reagan said.
The council is to oversee the Delta and various plans and studies that will affect the area. It will be an appeal body for Delta land use decisions, though Reagan notes this affects Solano County less than some Delta counties, because Solano has no development plans for its part of the primary Delta.
California communities under the legislation must conserve 15 percent more water by 2015 and 20 percent more by 2020. Fairfield Assistant Public Works Director Rick Wood said this is a subtle taking of Fairfield's water rights.
Normally, communities conserve water because their water supplies force them to do so, Wood said. But Fairfield, through good fortune and wise planning, has ample water supplies that give it an economic advantage, he said.
Wood described the law as forcing Fairfield to conserve water that can flow into the Delta for the environment, relieving part of that burden from big Delta exporters.
“You can argue it's for the good of the state and we'll make due the best we can,” Wood said. “I think we'll still be in a strong position with water rights and water supplies in Fairfield.”
And Fairfield already has a good, voluntary water conservation program, he said. Still, this part of the legislation is something he and the city tried to change.
“We were lost in the cacophony of voices, with all this going through in the dark of night and closed room deals and that sort of thing,” Wood said.
Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo use Delta water transported in the state's North Bay Aqueduct, though the pumps are far smaller than the massive pumps that take water from the southern Delta for Southern California. Local cities have raised no alarm about these water rights being endangered by the Delta package.
Despite all the talk of a peripheral canal, the legislative package itself doesn't call for one. But it is carefully crafted not to interfere with a peripheral canal being contemplated by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Solano County Water Agency Manager David Okita said.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is happening on a separate track from the legislation. It is to be a habitat plan to make certain Delta water exports comply with environmental and endangered species laws.
On yet another front, 8,000 acres of land is to be turned into tidal wetlands to help protect the rare Delta smelt, a species researchers say is disappearing partly because of water exports. Okita said this restoration work will probably be done in Solano and Yolo counties. Solano County officials have expressed concern about losing taxable farmland to habitat restoration.
“That is probably a bigger concern than the legislation, because the legislation may facilitate those type of things, but if you look at it carefully, there's not a lot of money if the bond doesn't pass and a lot of what's going on is studies,” Okita said.
The $11 billion bond is to go before state voters in November 2010.
Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, who represents much of Solano County, voted “no” on the Delta package. Among other things, she said Northern Californian and Delta water rights get insufficient recognition and the bills have too little protection for the Delta's residents and economy.
“Keeping Delta voices at bay and jamming a complicated set of water bills through the Legislature -- including an $11 billion general obligation bond that will further bankrupt the state's General Fund -- is fiscally irresponsible and counterintuitive to solving California's water problems,” Yamada said in a press release.
State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who represents much of Solano County, also voted “no” on package.
Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646, ext. 232, or beberling@dailyrepublic.net.