Davis Plan Seeks to Regain Water

Negotiators for Gov. Gray Davis unveiled a proposal Wednesday to use $350 million in state funds to pay for a water deal that would allow Southern California to regain surplus Colorado River water controlled by the federal government.

At a meeting in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the plan was outlined to U.S. Interior Department Deputy Secretary Bennett Raley, who responded that “many uncertainties” remain but that the governor’s proposal holds promise.

Davis portrayed the proposal as a major breakthrough in completing an agreement that has been in the works since 1995 and that would alter the way Colorado River water is distributed in the region and reduce the state’s dependence on the river.

Yet, even as Davis spoke, officials with the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District -- one of four water agencies that are party to the agreement -- expressed reservations about spending state money on water that the agency fears it won’t get if a drought affecting the region persists.

One part of the deal would allow Imperial Valley farmers to eventually sell about 200,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water to urban users in San Diego County, which amounts to more than 25% of the county’s water supply.

Another key element would let the MWD take surplus water from the Colorado until 2016. The district imports water and sells it to 26 agencies serving 18 million people in Southern California.

The MWD’s right to take the surplus was suspended on Jan. 1 by the Interior Department after the agencies involved in the proposed water transfer failed to reach an agreement. Federal officials have promised to restore the surplus -- enough for about 400,000 families for one year -- if an agreement is reached.

The federal government and the six other Western states that rely on the Colorado River are pushing California to end its long-standing practice of taking substantially more than its legal allotment of the river each year.

The proposal now on the table would take $200 million from Proposition 50 funds -- in addition to a $150-million loan guarantee from the state -- to pay for any damage done to the Salton Sea by the water deal. The Legislature would have to approve of the use of the $200 million.

Many scientists have said the Salton Sea will suffer when Imperial Valley begins selling some of its water to San Diego County. Reduced runoff of irrigation water from farms may cause the sea to become saltier, which could ruin the habitat of millions of migratory birds.

A bond measure passed by California voters last year, Proposition 50 is supposed to fund projects to improve water quality and water supplies throughout California.

But critics of the governor’s proposal said it would devote too much of Proposition 50 funds to a single project.

“I think we’ll have a difficult time going for this in the Legislature,” said state Sen. Mike Machado (D-Linden). “They’re taking $200 million away from our ability to improve people’s lives.”

MWD officials are worried that the Colorado River is so depleted by the current four-year drought in the Rocky Mountains that little or no surplus water is available -- even if the right to take the surplus is restored.