California's water reform legislation is all wet

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, one of the biggest sources of Southern California's water, is the largest estuary on the West Coast. By all accounts, the delta, which feeds into San Francisco Bay, is also one of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States. Water quality standards are routinely violated, and several of its fisheries, including the once prolific run of chinook salmon, are hovering on the brink of extinction.

Scientists have conclusively identified diversion of freshwater away from this estuary as one of the major causes of its collapse. In fact, the state of California recently admitted that it has granted rights to divert more than eight times as much water as actually exists.

Now the Legislature is saying it will "reform" the California water system and cure all of its ills with a package of bills that is expected to be up for a vote soon. The package of solutions -- supported by the governor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, legislative leaders including state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and numerous water districts, including our own Metropolitan Water District -- looks remarkably similar to a water plan offered in the late 1970s. That plan was rejected by the public in the early '80s.

Back then, the main feature of the proposal was the peripheral canal -- in the new plan that is termed an "alternative conveyance device" -- but the bottom line is that California's elected leaders are looking to replumb California to solve an ongoing water scarcity crisis, while largely paying lip service to what should be done: conservation, rainwater capture and use and water recycling. Though well-intentioned, what they have proposed so far falls far short of a fix, not only for the delta ecosystem but for Southern California. The state needs to realize that there are faster and more cost-effective, more job-producing and more environmentally beneficial ways to meet California's current and future water needs.

Replumbing the state is not a short-term solution -- it will take at least a decade to complete. On top of that, in the long term, importing water to Southern California will become less and less sustainable. As the climate changes and the population grows, we must identify and implement cost-effective, climate-resilient, energy-efficient and sustainable techniques to supply and manage our water. Instead, the delta legislation package is setting us up to invest in new infrastructure that only commits us further to an antiquated water system.