InfrastructureCalifornia Delta plan released, canal recommendation missing
Last week the Delta Stewardship Council released the first draft of its proposed plan to resolve safety concerns over California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, one of the state’s most critical pieces of infrastructure; the Delta accounts for 76 percent of the state’s fresh water supply; engineers, residents, and politicians fear that the aging levees along the Delta will break in the event of an earthquake; missing from the initial draft is a recommendation for a peripheral canal, a controversial proposal that has sparked fierce debate; more details will be added to the plan in subsequent drafts after public meetings are held to debate its contents; the final draft of the plan is scheduled to be completed and adopted in November 2011
Last week the Delta Stewardship Council, the agency tasked with managing California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, released the first draft of its proposed plan to resolve safety concerns over one of the state’s most critical pieces of infrastructure.
The Delta accounts for 76 percent of the state’s fresh water supply, in addition to holding back the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of the United States. The levee systems along the Delta protect Sacramento and San Francisco from both the San Francisco Bay and the surging rivers from the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Engineers fear that the 1,100 miles of levees along the Delta, which were built in a piece-meal fashion beginning in the 1850s, are one major earthquake away from giving away.
Many of the levees are built on a foundation of sand, which in the event of an earthquake would liquefy and send torrents of water cascading throughout northern California and disrupt the state’s primary source of water.
Politicians, local residents, and engineers have long known about these problems, but political infighting and tight fiscal budgets have stalled efforts to strengthen the levees.
The plan released last week, is the first step to establishing a solution for the Delta’s levees.
Missing from the initial draft is a recommendation for a peripheral canal, a controversial proposal that has sparked fierce debate in the past.
Supporters of the canal say that building a series of peripheral pipes, tunnels, and canals would ensure that the state, especially arid Southern California, would have access to fresh water in the event of a major catastrophe.
Critics believe that this is simply a power grab by southern California to steal more water. A similar project was rejected in the 1980s after sparking one of the state’s fiercest political battles.
Also missing from the first draft were details on how the Delta will be governed and how improvements will be paid for.
According to Keith Coolidge, chief deputy executive officer of the Delta Stewardship Council, the idea was to slowly build the plan “from the ground up.” Over the next nine months more details will be added in subsequent drafts after public meetings are held to debate its contents.
The Delta plan will have to balance the goals of restoring the Delta’s ecosystem, providing fresh water to for cities and farms, and protecting its infrastructure.
Key findings of the first draft include:
- California’s total water supply is oversubscribed as the stateregularly uses more water annually than is provided by nature.
- California’s water supply is increasingly volatile.
- Even with substantial ecosystem restoration efforts, some native species may not survive.
- There is no comprehensive state or regional emergency response plan for the Delta.
The final draft of the plan is scheduled to be completed and adopted in November 2011.
