Legislation Seeks End to Water War
Declaring that "peace has broken out along the Colorado River," Gov. Gray Davis signed three bills Monday meant to stop the feuding among local water agencies and pave the way for the nation's largest transfer of water from farms to cities.
The bills were passed in the final days of the legislative session in an atmosphere that suggested that seven years of negotiations would be on the verge of failure unless the state stepped in with money, a softening of environmental restrictions and a plan to balance the competing interests of different water districts.
"I am thrilled to finally see the realization of these goals after years of hard work by all the parties involved," Davis said.
But Davis' optimism may prove to be premature.
The Imperial Irrigation District has yet to approve the deal to sell water to the San Diego County Water Authority. A litigious environmental group is threatening to sue over what it sees as the state's puny effort to save the Salton Sea.
And Mexico is unhappy with a part of the California water plan that would deplete the aquifer that supports farms in the Mexicali Valley.
Still, many water observers agree that the bills represent a significant step toward a long-range plan for dividing up the state's allocation from the Colorado River.
Andrew Roth, who teaches a course on Western water at Pomona College, said the bills, while incremental, set the stage for a historic agreement about sharing water. "There's never been anything quite like this," he said.
The bills are meant to complement a tentative water-sale agreement reached by the Imperial Irrigation District, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Coachella Valley Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Former Assemblyman Richard Katz, the governor's top water advisor, served as a mediator for the four parties. Playing a similar role for the Bush administration was Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley.
Although widely divergent in their opinions on other issues, officials in Sacramento and Washington agree that the key to California's water future rests in reducing its dependence on the Colorado River and encouraging sales from water-rich farm areas to thirsty cities.
The thirstiest of those cities is San Diego, which has virtually no groundwater and has long chafed at its dependence on the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District.
