Background
"We haven't made a major positive decision on water in this state for four-plus decades." -- Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee, 6.9.08
The Governor and California legislature are curretnly grappling with how to address decades of inaction on the issue of water. The history of water transmission and rights in California is tremendously complex, but for Southern Californians, two key elments are central to any understanding of the current debate: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the State Water Project.
Following is an outline of both, and how they figure into a lasting solution to the state's water infrastructure.
The State Water Project
 Created in the 1950's, the California State Water Project (map) is the nation's largest state-built water and power development and conveyance system. It includes pumping facilities, power plants, reservoirs, lakes, storage tanks, canals and pipelines that capture, store, and convey water to 29 water agencies.
State Water Project Facts and Figures |
Number of storage Facilities |
33 |
Lakes/Reservoirs |
21 |
Total Reservoir Storage |
5.8 million acre-feet |
Length of Canals and Pipelines |
701 miles |
Two-thirds of California residents and most of our economy are dependent on water supplies from the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project.
Yet,
much of the State Water Project is either unfinished or badly aging. Environmental and legal challenges to additional projects, mainly centered around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, have left a gap in this critical piece of infrastructure.
The Delta
 About 30 percent of Southern California’s overall water supply flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a triangle of waterways flowing roughly between Sacramento, Stockton and the eastern outlet of San Francisco Bay.
In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation authorizing the formation of the Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force, with the intention of developing a vision for addressing long standing issues with the Delta. Among these are ecological concerns over endangered fish and other wildlife, as well as safety concerns over potential flooding and the long running debate over a "Peripheral Canal" or other means of conveying water from the Delta to the State Water Project's aqueducts.
The Peripheral Canal was proposed in the early 1980s as a means to convey Delta water to Southern California and the Central Valley. Many voters in the north considered it a "water grab," and the concept was defeated at the ballot in a heated 1982 campaign.
The Delta reemerged on the state's political radar after Hurricane Katrina brought the instability of levvies into focus. The high likelihood of an earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area places the Delta levy system at high risk, threatening the metro areas of Sacramento and Stockton as well as the hub of the state's water supply.
Enviornmental concerns are also paramount. In December, 2007, a Federal District Court Judge concluded that water diversions in the Delta threaten the Delta Smelt, a small fish protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
OCBC member Latham & Watkin published a Client Alert detailing the potential impacts of this decision, including how local water managers and developers now need to evaluate the impact of the Delta smelt decision on their planning efforts.
In January of 2008, the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force released its Final Report and 12 recomendations for addressing challenges facing the Delta. As the Task Force wrote in its opinion, "An integrated solution is vital as the Delta
cannot be “fixed” by any single action." Read the Blue Ribbon Task Force's recomendations here.
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