Ann Hayden is a Senior Water Resource Analyst at EDF.
Senator Simitian did a commendable job today of pitching his proposed bill’s three-pronged approach of addressing water supply reliability, Delta ecosystem restoration and Northern Delta assurances at a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife.

The bill would authorize the construction of facilities to improve water conveyance, implement a Delta ecosystem restoration fee and develop a new authority to oversee decision-making. Despite these potentially worthwhile goals and an obvious urgency for a Delta solution, the committee decided to hold the bill in committee. So, what’s the story?

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Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Here in the Golden State, our crashing fish populations, ongoing population growth, expected global warming, and unreliable levees in the Delta bring our limited water supply into sharp focus. It seems that there is not enough water to protect our environment, sustain agriculture and provide reliable supplies to an ever growing population as we did throughout the 20th century. Something's gotta give. What will it be?

Until recently, having a lawn in the front yard was as American as baseball, apple pie and perhaps a Visa card. But some people are now taking their lawns out, and even being paid to do so. The Santa Clara Valley Water District is paying county residents $75 per 100 square feet to take out their lawns, and a few cities are providing matching funds as well.

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Thomas J. Graff is Senior Counsel at EDF.

Way back in 1972 EDF launched a lawsuit against EBMUD in an effort to wean EBMUD away from its plan to access a supplemental water supply from the American River above Sacramento.

Just eleven months ago, EBMUD and its Sacramento partners, following the settlement of the suit, broke ground on a joint project that would both provide EBMUD and the Sacramento area with drought insurance and protect environmental and recreational flows in the lower American River (see picture of Lt. Gov. Garamendi wielding a shovel in May 2007 at the Freeport project groundbreaking).

The deal came too late for EBMUD to have a second water supply source this year, but it augurs well for a future in which global warming may make supply shortages more common.

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Its time to increase releases from upstream storage at Clair Engle Reservoir in accordance with the Trinity River Restoration Plan. Of course, another way of looking at it is that less of the river's natural flow will be "diverted to storage", and more will be allowed to stay in the river.

Either way, these flows were developed by McBain and Trush as part of an overall plan to restore the river corridor and fish populations. No less an expert than famed fluvial geomorphologist Luna Leopold called the plan the best thing he had seen in three decades.

As we blogged a couple of weeks ago, the Trinity Plan is not perfect but we are pleased that the fish are getting both improvements to their riparian habitat and water for swimming.

Cynthia Koehler is Senior Consulting Attorney for EDF.

For the second time in less than a year, a federal court has stepped in to protect endangered fish that depend on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Wednesday's ruling strikes down major portions of a Biological Opinion for failing to sufficiently ensure the recovery of Central Valley salmon and steelhead.

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Laura Harnish is the California Regional Director.
The west side of the San Joaquin Valley suffers from two problems: soils that contain high levels of naturally occurring selenium and agricultural land that lacks proper drainage. This deadly combination led to a disaster in the 1980’s in which thousands of birds were poisoned by exposure to toxic levels of selenium in drainage water that had pooled at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge.

EDF has long participated in efforts to find an environmentally sound and cost-effective solution to this drainage problem but it’s clear that the latest proposal by water contractors to assume the federal government's legal responsibilities comes with far too many strings attached. Read more »

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Ann Hayden and I took part at the Water Education Foundation's Executive Briefing on "Adapting to New Realities" last Thursday. Perhaps more newly realized than new, these realities include how to provide reliable water supplies to California’s growing population and vibrant agricultural economy while keeping Delta levees intact and fish species from going extinct – in short the whole enchilada. Emotions can run high, but the WEF folks do a good job of soliciting different viewpoints while keeping the tone of discourse, for the most part, civil.

Ann spoke on the Delta conveyance panel, immediately following Senator Simitian's pitch for the "bagel". By bagel, he meant the peripheral canal, but apparently in his office it is not PC to call the PC a PC due to the controversy it created in 1982. So they call it the bagel—something West Wing watchers are supposed to understand.

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Ann Hayden is a Senior Water Resource Analyst at EDF.

As many might recall, our own Tom Graff helped to lead the historic fight back in the early 80’s to take down the referendum that included building a peripheral canal around the Delta. Now, over a quarter of a century later, the canal or some version of it is back on the table and controversy is again heating up. Some have found it hard to believe that EDF would now be willing to keep an open mind and consider any proposals for a canal or “isolated facility” as it’s being referred to these days. What’s changed?

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