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Henry column: Pending delta lawsuits will slow real solutions

BY LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist | Tuesday, Nov 6 2007 6:25 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Nov 6 2007 10:41 PM

A pair of "enviro knights" have joined together in an epic battle to defend the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Who are these eco system avengers? Coalition for a Sustainable Delta -- the giant Paramount Farming company; Committee for a Reliable Delta -- Kern County ag water districts.

Huh? Farmers and water guys going all environmental on us?

Well, yes and no.

A federal judge in August ruled state and federal pumps sending some 6 million acre-feet of delta water south to Kern County and other users each year were hurting the endangered smelt (a fish) so the pumping must be curtailed, by as much as 35 percent. If the cutback is that big and over several years, local water agency folks predict it could ruin Kern's economy. The ruling, combined with the current drought, sent local ag water districts into a frenzy.

They're firing back with both barrels.

The massive pumps that feed water to farmers and Southern California residents aren't the only culprits in the delta, said Paramount spokesman Bill Philimore. And it's past time to start pointing fingers at those other problems, he said. So the coalition fired off a one-two set of intent-to-sue notices, first against Mirant Power Company last month and last Thursday against the California Department of Fish and Game.

The timing is what caught my attention.

Though Philimore and other local water agency folks told me the lawsuits were prompted by the judge's ruling in August, that lawsuit was bubbling for quite awhile. And it was pretty clear where it might go. Drought? We've had a few in the last 10 to 15 years, nothing new there. As for other factors degrading the delta, invasive species, pollution, greater municipal and industrial uses, that's all been looked at, studied and double studied for years, decades even.

So why now?

"Hindsight is 2020," Philimore said. "If I'd been more perceptive and had perhaps been paying more attention to what was going on in the delta and not relying on representation from state agencies this would have happened a couple years ago."

These two potential lawsuits are just the beginning, Philimore told me. Meanwhile, the committee, made up of water districts, has been amassing a lot of money (more than $450,000 and counting) that it will use for research to back up the coalition's lawsuits.

I wondered, though, if the timing has anything to do with a few other water-related issues churning around the state right now, such as proposals that could resurrect the peripheral canal, which would route water around the delta entirely.

Northern Californians hate the canal with a passion and are gearing up to fight it tooth and nail just as they did when they defeated it 25 years ago.

No, Philimore and others told me, these lawsuits are not any kind of threat or political move to get the northern interests to back off their opposition to the canal.

Even if the canal were approved tomorrow, it wouldn't be built for more than 10 years. If supplies to Kern were cut by 35 percent every year during that time, it would devastate the economy, said Bill Taube, manager of the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District.

"This is a matter of survival," he added.

So far, the only things government agencies have tweaked when trying to "fix" the delta are the pumps, Philimore said. There are other problems lurking in those waters and Kern's ag and water folks are determined to bring them to light.

At least one group isn't biting -- fishermen. (Get it? Ha.)

Judging by posts on well-known fly fisherman Dan Blanton's blog -- www.danblanton .com/viewmessage.php?id =92739 -- some folks just aren't convinced these lawsuits are about saving the delta so much as keeping the water flowing. The posters are upset by the coalition's most recent intent to sue the Department of Fish and Game for regulations that prop up populations of striped bass, which it says is an invasive species that kills the little smelt.

* "This is all about the $$$ to be made by stealing more NorCal water so cotton and houses can be grown in the desert."

* "They now want to blame the striped bass for the decline of delta smelt and other fish in the California Delta in order to take away the blame from the state and federal export pumps, even though the fish successfully coexisted for over 125 years."

Yikes. Almost makes me feel sorry for Paramount!

I do understand their frustration. Whatever you think of ag and water, they have contracts which they've paid for, water or no water, faithfully year in and year out. They've changed farming habits to use less water, grown more permanent crops than row crops, which typically take more water and yield less profit, depending on the market. For example, in Kern County the number of almond orchards has gone from 73,383 acres in 1996 to 101,000 acres in 2006. Meanwhile cotton (a major water sucker) has shrunk from 293,750 acres in 1996 to 94,075 acres in 2006.

Granted, many of those cotton acres have been paved over for houses, but that state project water hasn't been converted to urban use to accommodate growth. Metro Bakersfield has its own supply courtesy of the Kern River.

But still, more lawsuits just seem counterproductive to me.

Judges aren't water experts and addressing the delta's massive array of issues one drawn-out, years-long lawsuit at a time isn't going to work.

It hasn't so far.

There are efforts to try and work on delta problems overall, including the Bay Delta Conservation plan, which Mirant Power Company is a member of, as well as the Kern County Water Agency. Mirant has also been supportive of a peripheral canal, said Greg Gartell, assistant general manager of the Contra Costa Water District, also a member of the Bay Delta Conservation plan but an ardent foe of the canal.

"I was stunned," Gartell said of the coalition's intent to sue. "It's like shooting at one of your own."

His take was the lawsuits will just cause more trouble and slow headway on real solutions.

I have to agree.

Lois Henry's column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com /home/Blog/noholdsbarred, e-mail her at lhenry@bakersfield.com or call her at 395-7373.