Few Solutions to Water Crisis
WAE Speakers Said Short-term Fixes Are Unlikely
Tulare
County - Three experts on the water crisis facing California agreed
during a forum at World Ag Expo that short-term solutions are few and
long-term solutions are a long ways off.
Dan Dooley of Visalia, vice president with the University of California at Davis Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, David Nawi, Sacramento director with the Department of Interior, and Dick Moss, former head of the Friant-Water Users Authority, all agreed that a long-term solution is the best answer to the problems with the Delta and the shortage of water for California farmers.
Dooley, a Visalia attorney, played a key role in the San Joaquin River settlement that is designed to restore the salmon population on the San Joaquin River. He said the key to the long-term solution is a resolution of Delta conveyance, such as a peripheral canal or some other way to move water around the Delta.
“It's going to be a challenge and take many years,” he told a crowd of about 50 people.
Dooley did offer some short-term solutions, such as the 2-Gate proposal many ag interest support that would be designed to protect smelt and young Salmon from the massive pumps that send water to the south. However, that experimental program has been put on hold for more study, a move Dooley questioned.
“It's not sensible to delay an experiment of something that is to develop information for long-term solutions,” he said.
He said it would also be helpful to get the two biological opinions on the Delta – one on the smelt and one on the salmon – to be consistent with the other.
Nawi provided less hopeful analysis of the crisis that saw hundreds of thousands of farm land idled this past summer and has threatened the east side water supply from Friant Dam.
Saying we live in “difficult times” Nawi said the only possible solutions this year would be a large snowpack, but he said it will not be a quick fix to problems that have been decades in the making.
“You have limited resources. The Delta is in trouble and there are no short-term solutions,” he said.
He said the Interior Department is dedicated to finding a solution to both restore the Delta ecosystem and improve water supply, but it will take time, although he is hopeful that at least a draft plan to move water around the Delta could be finalized by the end of this year.
Moss, who managed much of the water for Eastside growers for many years, said that if solutions are not found soon and should Eastside water go away, then 600,000 acres of farmland could go unproductive in the south Valley.
He said the lack of surface water is greatly impacting the underground water supply and that it is reasonable to assume that use of groundwater will be regulated within 10 years.
“What's happening here in the San Joaquin Valley, it's not pretty picture,” said Moss.
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