[Sosfbay-discuss] Santa Clara Valley Water District

[Wes Rolley]

The Santa Clara Valley Water District seems to be walking a tight rope.  
On Channel 2 today, I noted that most of the counties in the Bay Area 
have begun to request voluntary conservation measures for water due to 
the shut down of the pumps in Tracy. The total story is not getting out 
to the public and it is not coming form the Water District. 

If you go to the Water District Web Site (http://www.valleywater.org/) 
you find that they are not saying much recently. Especially when you go 
to the section of press releases, you note a May 31, 2007 release: "The 
state shuts down Delta pumps. What does that mean for Santa Clara 
County’s water supply? We’re doubly threatened"  However, it looks as if 
that press release has been pulled, since the link to the text is broken.

At the same time, the Morgan Hill Times today (and the Gilroy Dispatch 
last Saturday) reported that Valley Farmers would lose discounts 
<http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/contentview.asp?c=216642>for water 
that they use in Agriculture.

This appears to be moving faster than you can follow unless you are 
paying close attention.  However, I have noted several tendencies.
- some will blame the California Endangered Species Act for the problems 
now.   That was very clear in a KPIX (CBS5) report by Simon Perez recently.
- there will be calls for voluntary reductions couched in language that 
makes this seem to be a temporary situation.
- bureaucracies of all forms act in terms of self-preservation.  This 
came our when a State Depart of Water Resources scientist hinted that 
the problem was not the export of water from the delta, but rather an 
invasive species of clam that competed from food with the delta smelt.  
What the scientist did not say is that this species of clam is oceanic, 
likes salt water rather than fresh, and if they are competing with the 
smelt for food it is only because the delta is becoming increasingly 
saline.

What none of the agencies, water districts, cooperative users will say 
is that we have an increasing demand (population growth, more intensive 
agriculture) for a diminishing supply of water (due to global warming).  
The agencies have always operated on the assumption that there was an 
engineering solution to everything... build more dams, build more 
canals, lay more pipeline.

The fact is that we are suffering from decades of poor planning and 
ineffectual oversight and it is time that communities started to demand 
something better.

I promised to lay out some new direction at a blog called delta levees.  
It isn't there yet, but a number of the options are outlined in the 
reports that are linked from that site or from the delta links at 
http://cagreening.blogspot.com/

We need to keep a close eye on what the water district is doing, Some 
consider them one of the more predatory of water districts in the state 
and they have some degree of power given the role that State Sen. 
Simitian (D. Palo Alto) plays.  Some version of Simitian's  SB 27 will 
undoubtedly influence the direction that the State of California takes.




-- 
"I find I have a great lot to learn – or unlearn. I seem to know far too much and this knowledge obscures the really significant facts, but I am getting on." -- Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024
http://www.refpub.com/