Our esteemed Senator Dianne Feinstein started a new push today with right wing nutcase Richard Pombo (aka Dumbo) to jump start the long dormant CALFED water plan for California. Their bills will authorize around $400 million to get the program going. However, there are conflicting reports in the newspaper as to what the bill will actually do. Proponents claim that when all is told, an increase of "only" 5% in the amount of water heading south out of the Bay Delta is planned. That is around 200,000 acre feet. However, a group called Environmental Defense is claiming that 1,000,000 acre feet is more the goal. They base that claim on public statements made from various state, federal and local agencies that proposed an alternative agreement last year. Given that the state will lose 800,000 acre feet in the Colorado River deal that was negotiated last year, which number do you believe? Notably, the bill itself does not cap the amount of water actually transferred.
Here is an environmental website that takes the very sensible position that CALFED offers few if any conservation programs, despite Feinstein's
press release claiming otherwise. SDearthtimes claims are that CALFED is just another big damming and channeling project, and that conservation is given short shrift. They point out that agriculture consumes 85% of water supplies; that only 15% of farms are equipped with the latest irrigation technologies, which can save up to 50% of water use; that replacing crops that rely heavily on water with crops requiring less water could save 2 million acre feet per year.
Meanwhile, Environmental Defense claims that CALFED eases the way for some controversial activities, such as raising the height of Shasta Dam and expanding Los Vaqueros reservoir in eastern Contra Costa County.
While the details are murky, as you can see from this Chronicle article, and I haven't read the actual bill, I'm not sure I trust Feinstein here. She has never been a major environmentalist, despite her efforts in support of Joshua Tree Park, and has a record of compromising in order to pander to development interests. Hope I'm wrong.