Thursday, September 1, 2005

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta supplies water for two of every three Californians while nurturing one of the most important estuaries in the hemisphere.

We sit on the edge of the delta, and the rivers that flow through our communities are vital to its health. What happens to our rivers has a big impact on the delta; what happens to the delta has a big impact on us.

The delta's makeshift system of century-old sloughs and levees directs the Sierra's snowmelt toward either San Francisco Bay or to massive pumps that send it south, where it is put to various beneficial uses.

The costs of building this system were enormous; the costs of maintaining it have been largely deferred. Think of the delta as a giant plumbing system; now think how much plumbers charge to fix anything.

But the delta's health finally is getting the attention it deserves. The Little Hoover Commission convened last week in Sacramento to hear, among others, one of the nation's most noted conservationists — former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. His greatest fears center on the effects of global warming, which he said could raise sea levels 3 feet. He called this threat "the most important issue in this state in this century."

Such a rise would push salt water through San Francisco Bay and into the delta's tributaries, turning the southern delta salty. "We're going to be pumping salt water into the California Aqueduct sometime this century," he warned.

Such incursion would destroy the delta as we know it — and as we depend on it. "It is time," said Babbitt, "we reassess the peripheral canal."

Babbitt's warnings are sincere. And he's not the first to resurrect the idea of the peripheral canal. But in his words many will hear echoes of past water grabs. In 1982, Northern California voted with a near-unified voice to defeat a ditch that would have been capable of carrying most of the Sacramento River's flow around the delta and directly to the pumps. That canal was seen as a fish killer, a water grab and the delta's death sentence. It is hard now to see any peripheral canal proposal as the delta's savior.

The delta is facing serious threats, long-term and far more immediate. Invasive species of fish, crabs and plants are profoundly altering its waters. The levees that hold back the rivers are crumbling as land behind them compacts and subsides. Even with so much water this winter, some delta fish populations have fallen to record lows, and no one knows why.

The peripheral canal, in some form, might solve some of the problems. But it might also create others just as serious — especially in dry years. We're not ready to embrace such a solution without more study.

The mistrust and enmity existing between the environmental movement, major urban water users and the interests of agriculture are deeply entrenched. To get them to agree on anything will require solid science and deft statesmanship.

Millions depend on the water that flows through the delta. It's time it got the attention it deserves.