Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Guest Column:

West watching California delta debate

What happens to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta matters in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Denver. From the eastern slope of the Rockies to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the western United States functions as a vast, interconnected plumbing system. Those who follow water closely in the West are increasingly nervous about what is going on in California. The delta is in crisis. Will California be able to solve this problem?

Saying “no” is not an option. Now is when all the California water perspectives have to come together in the delta toward common action through the Brown and Obama administrations.

From the vantage point of Sacramento, the Colorado River may seem distant and disconnected to the challenges in the delta. Yet, the two watersheds — their communities and their futures — are inextricably tied. This drought would be devastating the California economy were it not for the Colorado River. Water held in reserve behind the Hoover Dam by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has been sparing the Western economy from unimaginable hardship.

A 240-mile canal system links the Colorado River to the urban southland. The delta’s two major water projects sustain the Silicon Valley, San Joaquin Valley and southland as well. Other water projects tie the Colorado to the Mile High City and extend into the heart of Arizona. Others connect the Sierra to San Francisco. This all functions as one system that crosses the Continental Divide and reaches the Rio Grande and the Wasatch front. Everybody’s actions matters.

The reserves behind the Hoover Dam that have saved California in recent years are running out. An official water shortage on the Colorado River looms as early as next year for California, Arizona and Nevada. The Colorado is perhaps more legally complicated given how it involves seven Western states and two countries (the U.S. and water users in Mexico). But the environmental issues in the delta undoubtedly are more complex.

This could be the most altered delta on the planet. The wetlands are all but gone due to 1,100 miles of levees. Non-native species now comprise 95 percent of the population. Restrictions under the Endangered Species Act can thwart the operations of the nation’s two largest water projects, both in the delta, but not solve the problem.

As the situation worsens, the threat goes far beyond the 23 million Californians who directly depend on these water projects. This threatens the entire Western water system.

When are we finally going to get it? How bad does it have to get?

The Brown administration has revised the ongoing Bay Delta Conservation Plan process by staging habitat improvements over time, as opposed to a 50-year strategy as first contemplated. The scientific uncertainty is great. The needed water system improvements to reduce fish conflicts and protect water supplies from seismic risks — new intakes in the northern delta and twin tunnels to transport the supplies — will proceed as a stand-alone project.

The delta can be wrongly cast as an “either-or” choice between the economy and the environment, or one region of California vs. another. Viewing this as a choice between two legitimate needs is a guaranteed path to failure. The administrations are trying to meet the needs with the tools they have.

The water system that runs the West is at a pivotal moment. The Colorado part of the system is working to get its house in order through promoting conservation, augmenting supplies, and forging partnerships between cities and agricultures. Can the delta find its path? As the rest of the West closely watches California, the hope is for the state to be a beacon of water hope for the world through compromise and forward progress and not a tragic, lost opportunity.

Patricia Mulroy is a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution at the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV, distinguished Maki faculty adviser for the Desert Research Institute, and former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

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