"Press" skeptical of Peripheral Canal plans.

The "Press" is the newspaper in Tracy, a south Delta community where the massive state and federal pumps are located. The Press is highly skeptical of plans to build a Peripiheral Canal around the Delta region to ship Northern California water south to the western San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Here is the editorial the newspaper wrote about it:

Our Voice

Written by the Press editorial board
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

More information is needed for a new look at an around-the-Delta canal.

Talk of a peripheral canal that would re-route Sacramento River water
around Delta waterways is back, but we need to know more before we can
weigh in. Press file photo.

An influential public policy group has just released a report that says
California should no longer draw water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta to supply water to most of the state * and that we should build a
canal to pipe Sacramento River water around the Delta to the head of the
California Aqueduct near Tracy.

Hold on. Didn*t we already debate the so-called peripheral canal, take
it to a vote and soundly reject it * in 1982?

Now, the Public Policy Institute of California and experts from
University of California, Davis, say the risks posed by a changing Delta
ecosystem * with climate change, rising sea levels, levee failures from
future earthquakes, increased runoff and new invasive species * call for
an aggressive approach to protecting California*s long-term water
supply.
The Public Policy*s 184-page report says that continuing to channel
water through the troubled estuary*s maze of levees is risky and costly,
and that fortifying the Delta*s 74 islands would be a waste of taxpayer
money. The authors conclude that an *isolated conveyance* * blather for
peripheral canal * would draw fresh water from the Sacramento River and
divert better water to more than 25 million Californians for drinking
and irrigation by bypassing the salty mixture found in the Delta.

*Ultimately, there are two choices,* says Jay Lund, an engineering
professor who co-authored the Public Policy report. *No exports or a
peripheral canal. Keeping the Delta as it is, is not one of them.*

This report isn*t the first to weigh in on the Delta. An earlier state
task force recommended the study of a *dual conveyance,* one that would
combine a pipeline with continued pumping through a repaired Delta.

Following that report in May, the San Joaquin County Board of
Supervisors took a formal stand against such a canal * just as it did in
2007, 1998, 1991 and 1982 * and challenged cities and agencies in the
county to pass similar resolutions. Manteca did, but Tracy hasn*t
considered the issue.

The county*s resolution declared that a peripheral canal of any kind
would harm water quality and the ecosystem and diminish agricultural
land and even future urban development.

Supervisor Leroy Ornellas doesn*t mince words when it comes to the
Delta and the politics surrounding it.

*The Delta*s not broken,* he says. *Everything around the Delta is
broken * the state and various departments. Get more water flowing
through the Delta, and we*ll all be in better shape.*
Just as we can*t fathom a solution to our water woes that*s not
beneficial to all Californians, we can*t recommend a canal without
thoroughly analyzing the impacts on the Delta. How would the quality and
quantity of the water in the Delta change if river water isn*t channeled
through it? And what would be the consequences for the recreation,
agriculture, environment and economy of the Delta and surrounding area?

We*re happy to see Ornellas speak out on behalf of the Delta; we wish
more Tracy residents would do the same. Anyone who says this is a state
issue and not a local one needs to wake up.

This isn*t just about the future of much of California*s water supply.
The fut
ure of a critical ecosystem in our midst is also at stake.

For information:

* The Public Policy Institute of California describes itself as a
private nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and improving
public policy in California through independent, nonpartisan research.
The institute was founded in 1994 with an endowment from William R.
Hewlett. For a copy of the group's report:
www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=810.