“This spot can be given preference in everything, in soil, water
and trees, for the purpose of becoming, in time, a very large
plenteous mission.” – Father Juan Crespí, Spanish expedition
diarist, describing the Los Angeles River in 1769.
According to political debate and the popular press, the purpose
of adding surface water storage reservoirs to California’s
existing system is to provide water for urban growth and
agricultural crops. But that viewpoint touches only the surface
of a more complex policy and operations issue spelled out in the
CALFED Record of Decision (ROD): the need to expand storage
capacity to increase the existing system’s flexibility, improve
water quality and provide water for fish, as well as meet the
needs of a growing population.
When you drink the water, remember the spring. – Chinese proverb
Water is everywhere. Viewed from outer space, the Earth radiates
a blue glow from the oceans that dominate its surface. Atop the
sea and land, huge clouds of water vapor swirl around the globe,
propelling the weather system that sustains life. Along the way,
water, which an ancient sage called “the noblest of elements,”
transforms from vapor to liquid and to solid form as it falls
from the atmosphere to the surface, trickles below ground and
ultimately returns skyward.
There’s danger lurking underground. The threat cannot be seen,
heard or felt immediately, but there it resides – in shallow
pockets of groundwater and deep, cold subterranean aquifers
situated hundreds of feet below the surface. The danger manifests
itself through the most vital human activity next to breathing,
the consumption of water. Experts know there is no such thing as
pure water. Microscopic bits of a host of elements that surround
us are present in the water we drink. They exist at levels that
are harmless, and in fact some of the constituents found in tap
water are beneficial to human health.
Like a bad hangover, Californians awoke to unsettling news on New
Year’s Day 2003: the state had failed to resolve its ongoing
Colorado River dilemma. Despite the haze about why the
Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) fell through, the
implications were clear: California would suffer a sizable cut in
the amount of water it had become reliant on over the years,
threatening the political and economic stability of the entire
state. But indications are that the last nail is not in the
coffin yet.
“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” – Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
For time immemorial, the seas of the Earth have been seen as an
enticing but unreachable source of fresh water. Separating the
salt from ocean water was always a cost prohibitive process,
primarily reserved to wealthy Middle Eastern nations and
small-scale operations such as ocean-bound vessels and small
islands. Otherwise, through the evolution of modern civilization,
man has depended upon lakes, rivers and groundwater – a supply
that comprises less than 3 percent of the planet’s total water.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most
significant environmental laws in American history, the Clean
Water Act (CWA). The law that emerged from the consensus and
compromise that characterizes the legislative process has had
remarkable success, reversing years of neglect and outright abuse
of the nation’s waters.
The Bay-Delta comprises just 1 percent of California’s total
area, yet is at the heart of the state’s water supply system and
controversies. The CALFED Bay-Delta Program was formed in an
effort to replace conflict and controversy with a common vision
and a plan to “fix” the Delta. For the past two years, CALFED
agencies and stakeholders have begun to initiate many studies and
implement many projects and programs called for in the 2000
Record of Decision and Framework Agreement.
Two events that transformed the West, population growth and the
dominance of agriculture, are inextricable parts of the battles
fought over its most vital resource, water. Throughout the 19th
century, as settlers sought to tame the rugged landscape,
momentum built behind the notion of a comprehensive, federally
financed waterworks plan that would provide the agrarian society
envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. The Reclamation Act of 1902,
which could arguably be described as a progression of the credo,
Manifest Destiny, transformed the West into an economic
powerhouse while putting an exclamation mark to the tide of
American migration.
Water is the true wealth in a dry land – Wallace Stegner
One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt signed
legislation that changed the course of American history and
permanently altered the landscape of the western United States.
The West of today retains some of the vestiges of the land that
brought the explorers, entrepreneurs and dreamers hundreds of
years ago. Despite the surge in population, vast tracts of
wilderness remain – forests thick with evergreen trees and
seemingly unending open spaces where human inhabitants are few
and far between.
The situation is true anywhere: when resources are stretched,
tensions rise. In the arid Southwestern United States, this
resource is water and tensions over it have been ever present
since the westward migration in the 18th Century. Nowhere in this
region has the competition for water been fiercer than in the
Colorado River Basin. Whether it is more water for agriculture,
more water for cities, more water for American Indian tribes or
more water for the environment – there is a continuous quest by
parties to obtain additional supplies of this “liquid gold” from
the Colorado River. Sometimes the avenue chosen to acquire this
desert wealth is the court system, as exemplified by the landmark
Arizona v. California dispute that stretched for over 30 years.
Americans living in the West awoke to a strange sight as they
switched on their television sets the morning of Tuesday,
September 11, 2001. Poised to hear the latest news or traffic
reports, viewers were instead presented with the surreal image of
New York’s World Trade Center towers engulfed in thick black
smoke. Many immediately thought the buildings had been involved
in some kind of horrific accident with an aircraft that had gone
astray. But when the cameras suddenly switched to the blazing
wreckage at the Pentagon, and later, in western Pennsylvania, the
grim reality of the morning became frightfully clear: the United
States was under attack.
Water from the Colorado River transformed the sagebrush and
desert sands of the Imperial, Coachella and Palo Verde valleys
into lush, green agricultural fields. The growing season is
year-round, the water plentiful and the local economies are based
almost entirely on farming. As the waters of the Colorado River
allowed the deserts to bloom, they allowed southern California
cities like Los Angeles and San Diego to boom. Suburbs, jobs and
people followed, and the population within the six counties
served by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
(MWD) grew from 2.8 million in 1930 to more than 17 million
today.
Those on the California water insider track know all too well the
fine line the state walks with regard to maintaining its water
supply. Hydrologic conditions put California at the mercy of the
weather and some are predicting this year could be the start of a
dry cycle not just for the state, but the Southwest as a whole.
Combine that with a regional dry spell in the Northwest and
California’s power woes, and a potential recipe for disaster
begins to solidify.
Traditionally treated as two separate resources, surface water
and groundwater are increasingly linked in California as water
leaders search for a way to close the gap between water demand
and water supply. Although some water districts have coordinated
use of surface water and groundwater for years, conjunctive use
has become the catchphrase when it comes to developing additional
water supply for the 21st century.
The arrival of each storm brings more than rain and snow to
thirsty California. From the coastal redwoods to the streets of
Los Angeles, water flowing from hillsides and paved surfaces
carries with it a host of pollutants that befoul tributaries,
streams and rivers. The toll on the environment is measured in
closed beaches, reduced fish populations and, in some cases, a
lower quality of available water for human use. The sources of
pollution are sometimes easy to control with existing technology.
But in other cases, the ubiquitous nature of contaminants has
left regulators in a quandary over how to solve the problem.
In California, everyone needs water. Farms, cities, industry and
the environment all rely on this essential element for life. But
sometimes there is not enough water to go around. Geography
limits supply. Drought limits supply. Environmental restrictions
limit supply. Growth limits supply. Wasteful or unreasonable use
limits supply. Court decisions can limit supply.
Drinking water is the ultimate recycled resource. It is recycled
over years, centuries and millenniums. The water we use today is
the same supply with which civilization began. The water that
once coursed down the Ganges River or splashed into Julius
Caesar’s bathing pool may end up running from the tap in your
home.
When one thinks of Colorado River water allocations, conflict
comes first to mind. But compromise as much as conflict shaped
division of this river’s vital water resources, with conflict
often serving as the catalyst for a compromise.
Priority: the right to precedence over others in obtaining,
buying, or doing something – Webster’s New World College
Dictionary
First in time, first in right has long served as one guiding
principle of water law in California. Simply put, this priority
system generally holds that the first person to claim water and
use it has a right superior to subsequent claims. In times of
shortage, it is the most junior of water rights holders who must
cut back use first.
