Summer and it is all about the water

I guess summer really is here. California finds itself in the third year of drought. We had our first little range fire of about 700 acres near the Ikea distribution facility at the foot of the Grapevine, the streets of Iran are on fire over election fraud and repression from their ruling theocracy, and the powerful California Farm Bureau is waging an all out attack on the Delta Smelt. It brought to mind that old Kingston Trio song, The Merry Minuet, where the song ends with these still pertinent lines "They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran. What nature does not do to us will be done by our fellow man."

With summer here, and thinking about water, I found myself browsing a column the other day describing the little endangered fish, the Delta Smelt, as the ultimate enemy of all life here in California. The opinion piece appeared in The Bakersfield Californian in the Saturday edition.

The views are from one of our local conservative talk-radio personalities (is there any other kind these days?), Inga Barks. Inga, cites a 1993 report presented by a former Kern County Supervisor, which warned 16 years ago of dire consequences for the Central Valley if environmental protection was not balanced with "our very livelihood." She argues "we're on a collision course between fish and mankind -- and mankind is losing." She goes on with even greater intensity, "Read this part aloud: Farms are dying, our economy is failing and jobs are disappearing -- all because someone thinks it makes sense to put the needs of a fish too dumb to stay alive above the needs and jobs of humans."

I don't think smelt can be blamed for all those no-money-down adjustable-rate-mortgages and the quick-sell games AIG, Countrywide, Ameriquest, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and so many others played in bringing the economy to the porcelain bowl on wobbly and bent knees. The little finger length fish had no part in that Wall Street party and hangover. I doubt Mr. and Mrs. Smelt have anything to do with our Middle East war policy, or California's failed state budget.

But, farming interests really do hate the Delta Smelt during dry years (and there are always plenty of dry years in California) for curtailing contracted water shipments under the Central Valley Project. This project came into law during the last Great Depression and saw its most significant update in 1992. In an act of supreme irony a Republican President, George H. W. Bush ushered in with his signature the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-575) that included Title XXIV, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA).

CVPIA´s general purposes are to:

1. Protect, restore, and enhance fish, wildlife, and associated habitats in California´s Central Valley and Trinity river basins
2. Address the Central Valley Project´s impacts on fish, wildlife, and associated habitat
3. Improve the Central Valley Project´s operational flexibility
4. Increase water-related benefits provided through expanded use of voluntary water transfers and improved water conservation
5. Contribute to the State of California´s interim and long-term efforts to protect the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary
6. Achieve a reasonable balance among competing demands for project water, including requirements for fish and wildlife, agriculture, municipal and industrial and power contractors.

These purposes respond to a need to modify the project´s existing water operations and physical facilities.

With all that environmental protection language in the law you can only imagine how angry big California industrial and agribusiness interests were with George H. W. Bush. They certainly did not help his re-election efforts against W. J. Clinton.

When the original Central Valley Project was enacted in the 1930s there was a 160 acre feet limit on the amount of water any farm concern could use. By the early 1980s 80% of all the farmland being used in California was on farms of 1,000 acres or larger. 75% of all agricultural output came from only 10% of the farms.(source CVP link). The current limit of 960 acre feet of project water came with the Reclamation and Reform Act of 1982, which also ended the residency requirement in the original law on the farms receiving the Central Valley Project water. This why so many LLCs and corporations in Nevada and Delaware now own most of California's farmland. And people wonder why California is so far in debt.

California is a peculiar place when it comes to how water rights work. There are two watersheds in California's Central Valley Basin: the Sacramento River and its tributaries, and the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. Reasonable use, public benefit and he who got there first gets first claim to the water are the general rules of water in the state. The really big farms are covered, because most of them are senior water rights holders. The northern part of the state is covered because of key protections built into the Project law over the years.

These key protections have been built over a long period of time to govern and persuade people using water in California. The County of Origin Law is one of those legislative protections. The Watershed of Origin Protection Act is another. These both came into law during the 1930s, and both protect the areas and counties where the water originates. These counties and areas have first claims to the water, which supersedes what the state or federal government can do with these watersheds. This is why NorCal gets water and SoCal gets water, but most of small to mid size agricultural concerns in Central Cal get squat. Seniority and home field advantage always trumps hopes and dreams of small outfits.

Most of California agriculture could, and should, do a lot more for water conservation. The Pacific Institute put out a blistering report on current water practices by the California agriculture industry. They argue with technology and science applied to farms total usage could be cut by 20% within twenty years time. Dry years would not be an impediment and our economy would not be damaged. This could hold down some major costs on infrastructure projects, like a new peripheral canal.

I am surprised how little energy statewide there is for a new peripheral canal, which really is something all Californians should bite the bullet on. The Delta is at the stage where it is unsustainable. Our levees and entire water supply are one major earthquake away from catastrophe, with the distinct prospect of no water for more than twenty million people in the state who rely on the old Central Valley Project if a big one should occur.

The Delta Smelt is one of the very few species able to navigate between fresh water and salt water in one of those precious and little understood filtration systems, which millions of years of evolution perfected to keep nature healthy. The Los Angeles Times ran a story a couple of years back, during the beginning of our current drought explaining why the Delta Smelt is so important. In thirty years time this little fish is one of the seventeen remaining fish species from a population of 29 fish species that called the Delta home in the 1970s.

Frontline recently did a great show examining how our urban and suburban industrial development has undone much of our environment. Poisoned Waters, explores our very endangered waterways with the focus on the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. The best thing about Frontline documentaries is that they are balanced. There are possible solutions in the offing from stakeholders on both sides of the issue. The growing dead hole in the Chesapeake Bay and rising pollution of Puget Sound should be huge alarm bells going off around the nation, but it is still all quiet on the American western front when it comes to protecting our increasingly fragile ecosystem, particularly the western front in California.

Cool, clear, water. The drought is real, and so is this problem. Blaming the Delta Smelt and the other important species of our largest estuary serves no one, even those who rail against the little fish. Small things matter. Use a car wash that recycles water, instead of hosing your car at home. Water your lawn less this year, and think about replacing grass with plants that use little water. Buy low flow toilets with high action air pumps to save water and remove waste efficiently. Call your dorky legislator to move the canal process along and understand that a small charge on all of us can make big things that are necessary happen. You get the picture. We live in a starfish world where small things can make big improvements.