By Warren Lutz
Record Staff Writer
Saturday, February 25, 2006
STOCKTON - The Delta Protection Commission could flex greater muscle over development in and around the Delta if a bill expanding the commission's powers makes it into law.
The bill, AB797, also would change the makeup of the commission, increasing it from 19 to 23 members to include people representing farming, environmental and recreational interests.
Critics - many of them commission members - argue the agency lacks teeth and never fulfilled its promise. Created in 1992, the commission has been little more than a policy advocate over issues affecting the 1,000-mile estuary.
The bill's author, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, wants to change that.
"I've wanted to increase their stature, their power and their resolve to take action," Wolk said. "They have some powers that they never used. They need to become the voice of the Delta."
With the pending breakup of the California Bay-Delta Authority, Wolk and others feel the little-known commission could shoulder more responsibility over the Delta, which provides water for 23 million Californians.
The Bay-Delta Authority runs the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, which was created in 1994 to balance California's water needs with the Delta's ecosystem. But the authority has run into heavy criticism in recent months, prompting its members in December to vote themselves out of existence.
Wolk said she supports CALFED but thinks the Delta commission plays a unique, "more locally focused" responsibility over the estuary. Her bill passed the Assembly and is awaiting a Senate vote.
But some who voted against the bill said the Delta Protection Commission was unnecessary to begin with.
Lawmakers should be more concerned about Delta flooding given the fragile state of levee system, said Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi, who opposed the bill.
"We don't need more bureaucracy and more committees," Nakanishi said. "We know what the problem is. Let's fix the levees."
State lawmakers created the Delta Protection Commission to protect the Delta's diverse ecosystem from the pressures of development. Local governments are required to abide by the commission's land use policies, yet the commission has no direct authority over development.
A recent survey of commission members by a consulting firm found they were concerned about the commission's role, funding, staffing and makeup.
Legislative wrangling has softened some of the language in Wolk's bill. But it still imposes rules on developers, requiring them to provide new agriculture or habitat space if they want to build in certain sections of the Delta.
Members of the Delta Protection Commission who support the bill say the agency could do more good for the Delta if it had additional power and better representation.
Solano County Supervisor Mike Reagan, a member, thinks the agency could take a more active role in turning the Delta into a recreational hot spot with the right kind of hotels, marinas and restaurants.
"I think it's the appropriate venue," Reagan said. "It's a state commission that, if it's appropriately constituted, is the perfect venue for doing some visioning and planning."
Contact reporter Warren Lutz at (209) 546-8295 or wlutz@recordnet.com