Water bank woes

[Tracy Chimenti]

Read the Bee front section-- page 3. Waterbank may be established to transfer 600,000 a.ft. water from willing sellers in the north, to water hungry locations in the south. This, after we find out that the Kern water bank has a gob of illegal water underfoot. The prospectives must demonstrate a 20% water conservation program to qualify for the water. 20%!! Why not make it 50%?

Then the kicker was when I read that the prospective transfers may be held up by delta water stnadards and the ESA. ANOTHER GREAT REASON FOR THESE JERK-OFFS TO BUiLD THE PERIFPHERAL CANAL! THEY WON'T HAVE NEARLY AS MANY ENVIRONMENTAL RESTRICTIONS!! DIDN'T THESE UCDC PEOPLE THINK OF THAT???

Tracy

[Darian]

Hi Tracy,.... After reading the proposal and the FAQ's, I can't see the difference between what is happening right now and when they implement the proposed water bank. The water will come from NorCal water storage facilities (can you say Trinity River water??) or ground water, be sold by NorCal farmers/municipalities to the usual suspects. Transfer will be done thru the pumps at Tracy. Allocation is to be refereed by DWR.

Currently, SoCal reservoirs are full and, presumably, ground water supplies in the San Joaquin are at high levels. This is so as pumping in the south delta has been at very high levels during the 6 month window provided by Judge Wenger (USDC, Fresno). This is the main reason that our reservoirs are low and will continue to be until orderly processes/standards for pumping are settled.

IMHO, this is not an attempt to support the need for a peripheral canal but to make some very big NorCal farmers/ranchers a bunch of money thru arbitrage while continuing to pump at very high levels. After all, their counterparts in San Joaquin did it....

Water will be sold to the farmers/ranchers/municipalities by the feds and the state at $28.00 per acre foot (PAF). it will then be sold to willing buyers at market price (I'm guessing about $200.00 PAF). The buyers will, also, pay an admin fee to DWR for handling to transfer. That's a neat profit for little effort and almost an exact copy of what happened with the Kern County Water Agency in the early 90's (in fact, DWR referenced that disgusting affair to support the proposal). Seems to me all matters concerning water should be wrested from the feds and DWR; considering their prior record in handling these transactions.