State Water Project

Students of California's history of gold and oil rushes know it's filled with examples of profiteering, conspiracy, influence-peddling and other chicanery. So there's no reason the story should be any different with that liquid gold of the 21st century, water. That's the theme of a lawsuit filed a few weeks ago alleging there's something smelly about how a group of private interests — notably a huge agribusiness owned by the wealthy Southern California couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick — got control of an underground water storage project the state had already spent $75 million to develop.

When Gov. Jerry Brown wrapped up his tenure last time through, he left a huge unresolved question for California: In the wake of a failed 1982 initiative to fund the so-called peripheral canal, how would the state distribute and safeguard its water supply? How to maximize the water supply and allocate it fairly has been debated often in the years since without producing a solution. But it now looks as if Brown intends to finish up this piece of unresolved business. Earlier this month, state water officials presented him with the basics of a plan that would have profound implications for the future of California, as well as the legacy of its governor.

As the California drought heads into a third year, State Water Project operators on Tuesday tentatively ordered water deliveries to agricultural customers cut by 40% from the amounts farmers had requested. In the first of a series of forecasts made during the winter months, the state Department of Water Resources estimated that the project would deliver 2.5 million acre-feet of water in 1989. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.

The aqueduct stretched across the desert like an endless blue freight train, carrying its cargo of Colorado River water to a concrete building at the base of a craggy-faced mountain. Inside the plant, adorned with the seal of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a set of massive pumps hoisted the water 441 feet high, disgorging it into a tunnel and the final leg of its journey from the Arizona border to a Riverside County reservoir. The Julian Hinds Pumping Plant is one of the hydraulic hearts of California's vast water supply system, built early in the last century to push water from where it is to where it isn't, no matter how many hundreds of miles of desert, mountains and valleys are in the way. Defying geography on such a grand scale takes energy.

The state's top water official assured Ventura residents on Wednesday that the State Water Project offers a dependable supply of water, but said he could make no guarantees about how much water the city would get if it builds a pipeline to hook into the project. "I think of the State Water Project as a very reliable supply," said David Kennedy, director of the California Department of Water Resources in Sacramento. But no one could have foreseen the worst drought on record, he said.

Environmental groups are rallying against a plan to cede some operations of the massive State Water Project to local water wholesalers as part of a broad restructuring of state government being considered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor is expected to signal next month his support, or rejection, of many of the 1,200 recommendations in a proposed top-to-bottom overhaul of the California bureaucracy.

With a snow survey Thursday confirming near-record dry conditions, California has come face to face with its most severe drought crisis in modern times--a scenario that the massive state Water Project conceived in the 1950s was supposed to prevent. The project cost more than $2.5 billion to build, threw up dams across wild rivers in Northern California and today gulps more electric power than any city.

If this were a normal February, you'd find Don Elholm out west of here on his farm in Lost Hills, irrigating alfalfa and painstakingly preparing the hard, brown Kern County earth for another year's cotton crop. Instead, he's at home at the kitchen table, smoking cigarette after cigarette, trying not to fret about the future. "Can't plant," Elholm, 51 and a third-generation San Joaquin Valley farmer said, looking down at hands callused by three decades in the field. "No water, no crop.

Gov. Pete Wilson announced Thursday that he will seek negotiations with the Bush Administration for California to take over the federal government's vast Central Valley Project irrigation system and merge it with the state's water system. The governor said he will appoint a team of representatives to start negotiations with officials of the Bush Administration with the goal of reaching an agreement "within six months."

Gov. Jerry Brown is about to make official what a winter of downpours and rising reservoir levels have already made obvious: California's drought is over. Brown is expected to lift the state's 3-year-old drought declaration Wednesday, when the next snow survey is conducted. In a statement released Monday, the governor's office said it "is waiting for the season's final snow survey later this week to officially rescind the previous administration's drought declaration. While this season's surplus of rain and strong snowpack has clearly ended the dry spell for now, it is critical that Californians continue to conserve water.

Gov. Jerry Brown is about to make official what a winter of downpours and rising reservoir levels have already made obvious: California's drought is over. Brown is expected to lift the state's 3-year-old drought declaration Wednesday, when the next snow survey is conducted. In a statement released Monday, the governor's office said it "is waiting for the season's final snow survey later this week to officially rescind the previous administration's drought declaration. While this season's surplus of rain and strong snowpack has clearly ended the dry spell for now, it is critical that Californians continue to conserve water.

Students of California's history of gold and oil rushes know it's filled with examples of profiteering, conspiracy, influence-peddling and other chicanery. So there's no reason the story should be any different with that liquid gold of the 21st century, water. That's the theme of a lawsuit filed a few weeks ago alleging there's something smelly about how a group of private interests — notably a huge agribusiness owned by the wealthy Southern California couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick — got control of an underground water storage project the state had already spent $75 million to develop.

Late spring storms smothered the Sierra in snow. The state's biggest reservoir is nearly full. Precipitation across much of California has been above average. By standard measures, California's three-year drought is over. "From a hydrologic standpoint, for most of California, it is gone," said state hydrologist Maury Roos, who has monitored the ups and downs of the state's water for 50 years. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't lifting his drought declaration. Los Angeles isn't ending its watering restrictions and Southern California's major water wholesaler isn't reversing delivery cuts.

Despite a return to normal snowpack and precipitation this winter, state officials said water shortages will continue this summer and urged continued conservation efforts. The Department of Water Resources on Thursday slightly increased allocations in the state system that helps supply urban Southern California. Managers said they might be able to raise projected deliveries again next month but warned that they expect the final numbers to be no more than last year -- about 40% of full allocation, which prompted rationing in many Southland cities, including Los Angeles.

It may be raining and snowing, but water managers are still forecasting below-normal deliveries this year for the state system that helps supply Southern California. Storms have been filling Northern California's big federal reservoir, Shasta Lake, but have been steering clear of the region that drains into Lake Oroville, the main reservoir in the state system. "Every rainstorm seems to sit over Shasta and bypass our reservoir," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources.

The California Legislature did something right, it would seem. So did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Something huge and historic. The wiggle word "seem" is needed because the exact future of the sweeping water legislation passed at dawn Wednesday is far from certain. For starters, success will hinge on whether voters next November approve an $11.1-billion water bond issue. Last-minute sweeteners that fattened the bond size left ample opportunity for opponents to cry "too much pork."

Late spring storms smothered the Sierra in snow. The state's biggest reservoir is nearly full. Precipitation across much of California has been above average. By standard measures, California's three-year drought is over. "From a hydrologic standpoint, for most of California, it is gone," said state hydrologist Maury Roos, who has monitored the ups and downs of the state's water for 50 years. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't lifting his drought declaration. Los Angeles isn't ending its watering restrictions and Southern California's major water wholesaler isn't reversing delivery cuts.

Despite a return to normal snowpack and precipitation this winter, state officials said water shortages will continue this summer and urged continued conservation efforts. The Department of Water Resources on Thursday slightly increased allocations in the state system that helps supply urban Southern California. Managers said they might be able to raise projected deliveries again next month but warned that they expect the final numbers to be no more than last year -- about 40% of full allocation, which prompted rationing in many Southland cities, including Los Angeles.

State officials announced Wednesday they will deliver more water to Southern California this year than previously predicted but cautioned that shipments will remain well below normal. State water resources director Lester Snow said "a series of very beneficial storms in February and early March" prompted his department to increase allocations to water agencies by 5%.

State water deliveries could be slashed next year if California continues its dry streak, a move that could lead to widespread rationing. California Department of Water Resources officials Thursday said water agencies could get as little as 15% of their State Water Project allocations, although that figure could go up if Sierra Nevada rain and snowfall return to normal in the coming months.