Lawmakers Want Delta Group Disbanded | News

Lawmakers Want Delta Group Disbanded

Bill Passed By Senate

May 8, 2008

SACRAMENTO — The state Senate voted Thursday to end

California's participation in a joint authority created eight years ago to rescue the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from collapse and resolve persistent water disputes.

The bill, which goes to the Assembly, would disband the California Bay-Delta Authority. The entity includes representatives from six state and six federal agencies and had been charged with implementing the Cal-Fed program to repair the delta.

The authority was created in 2000 as part of an effort that began several years before to end infighting between government agencies and interest groups representing farmers, fishermen, cities and environmentalists. It has been plagued ever since by bureaucratic disagreements over funding and priorities.

An investigation last year by The Associated Press found that most of the nearly $5 billion that has been spent on the Cal-Fed program has gone to projects hundreds of miles from the delta.

"The delta is in worse condition today despite the authority," said Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, the bill's author. "The authority has outlived its usefulness."

The influence of the California Bay-Delta Authority has been in decline in recent years, as court decisions, lighter snowpacks and other factors increasingly dictate the direction of water debates.

Last year, a federal judge cut water pumping from the delta by a third to protect a native fish, compounding a statewide water shortage. That decision came after the state slashed the authority's administrative budget and reassigned most of its projects and staff to other state agencies.

State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, who represents a district in the southern delta, said he would like to see an accounting of the authority's spending.

"It just hasn't been effective," he said after the Senate voted 25-8 in favor of the bill. "I think a further in-depth look needs to happen to see exactly where all of that money has went, because we certainly see the expenditures being made but no improvements being made."

Despite the Bay-Delta Authority's many problems, Machado's bill caught a key lawmaker by surprise.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who helped craft the Cal-Fed program, said she had asked her staff to talk to the state senator about his bill.

"I'm surprised by this," Feinstein said. "I do not understand the rationale."

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is crucial to California, acting as the heart of the state's intricate water supply and delivery system. Water that courses through its rivers and channels eventually reaches about 23 million Californians and thousands of acres of farmland.

The Bay-Delta Authority was created by a joint agreement between the state and federal governments in 2000 as the governing body for Cal-Fed, the California Federal Bay-Delta Program.

Cal-Fed would continue under the bill passed Thursday but with its environmental programs, contracts and funding being handled by the California Resources Agency.

Lawmakers want to replace the authority after seeing recommendations later this year from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision Task Force.

Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on whether he would sign the bill. But a spokeswoman for the governor said the state needs a comprehensive water plan that includes conservation, reservoirs and a canal to pipe fresh water around the delta.

"We agree that despite billions of dollars in bond money spent on fixing the delta in the last decade, the delta is in worse shape today than it was a decade ago," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said in an e-mailed statement.