The peripheral canal is back.
The idea of building a concrete chanel to move water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta so more water could flow to the Central Valley and Southern California will be part of a report submitted to the Governor by New Year’s Eve.
The story is breaking in sacbee.com, which will launch a special section on the topic of “Resurrecting the Delta Canal” on Sunday. Their Q&A with Mike Chrisman, California Resources Secretary, is found here.
Remember, the idea of a peripheral canal was shot down by California voters in 1982, mostly because environmentalists didn’t think it would protect habitat for fish and birds and Northern California voters didn’t want Southern Californians getting more of their water.
“There is no reason to do more studies. It is time to act,” said Anthony Fellow, one of the San Gabriel Valley’s longest running water officials. Fellow sits on the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District board and is first vice chair of the powerful Metropolitan Water District board.
All San Gabriel Valley water agencies this year have been cut off from receiving MWD water. We are relying only on our ground water supplies. Scary, huh? MWD made the move because a judge limited the movement of water through the delta to save the delta smelt from extinction.
Fellow says a worst-case scenario would be an earthquake in the Bay-Delta region that would cut off supplies to Southern California. He advocates making the infrastructure improvements to the Delta, which by the way, is being called the Delta Canal as a way to shake off negative branding associated with the first failed effort.
“The bottom line is: Something has to be done. We are playing Russian roulette with our water supply.”
Just another example of California’s broken down infrastructure. Where will the state get the money to pay for this canal? Obama, can you hear us?
