Water California

She had to fight sexism, the loss of her husband and his fortune and her own spinal problems, but Harriet Russell Strong persevered to become the "Walnut Queen of Southern California." From an arid 220-acre farm near what is now Whittier, Strong parlayed her home-grown walnuts into a thriving food empire and turned the feathery fronds of the drought-tolerant Argentine pampas grass she planted around her orchards into a trendy fashion statement that swept the nation.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Wednesday halted his attempts to mediate an increasingly bitter dispute between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and two agricultural irrigation districts--a sign that a water deal considered key to the state's water future may be collapsing.

He's said it until he's blue in the face, even red in the face: Nobody makes a move until he gives the OK. At one Cabinet meeting, Gov. Gray Davis actually sketched a flow chart for his agency secretaries. Trying to be both humorous and explicit, he drew a box labeled "governor" with connecting lines to 12 little boxes for the Cabinet members underneath. "I'm not appointing you to exercise your independent judgment. I'm appointing you to implement my judgment," Davis says he has told them.

In the first shot of what could become an urban vs. rural water war, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted Tuesday to ask Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to reconsider the 1931 agreement that gives farmers the lion's share of the Colorado River.

Born thirsty and raised during times of drought, this city is endlessly on the prowl for drinkable water. Now the civic search for potable sufficiency may even lead to the use of converted oil tankers, which would import water from the Pacific Northwest. That idea comes in the wake of a recently rejected attempt to clean waste water thoroughly enough that it could be used for washing and drinking. If both plans sound farfetched, it helps to understand local history and local fears.

The general manager of the mammoth Imperial Irrigation District has been fired, another sign that the historic agreement under which San Diego would buy water from the Imperial Valley--seen as the linchpin of the state's water future--is far from a done deal. "This thing is far from over, not by a longshot," said UC San Diego political science professor Steven Erie, an expert on California's water wars.

Growth along the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could drive up the cost of drinking water while reducing its quality for residents from the East Bay to San Diego, some water officials say. State and local officials are trying to agree on how to save California's largest source of drinking water, which supplies 22 million people. The fight has focused on how to ensure that water supplies are divided fairly among farmers, cities and aquatic wildlife.

It was a day of good news and bad news for California as Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on Thursday assessed his attempts to end California's seemingly endless water wars in a speech to 1,000-plus water officials from seven states that depend on the Colorado River for survival.

As part of a decade-long effort to get lead out of drinking water in California, a major manufacturer of water meters sold in Glendale and Pasadena has agreed to stop marketing meters that release lead into tap water in excess of the state's legal limit. The agreement involves ABB Water Meters Inc. of Ocala, Fla., which supplies meters to water districts in the San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the two Southern California cities.

As government officials struggle to produce a blueprint for dividing up California's most prized water supply by the end of the year, business leaders from around the state are pushing for a multibillion-dollar plan, opposed by most environmentalists, to expand and build dams along rivers that feed the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.