Central Valley Pushes "Two Gate" Solution

Fresno Bee says Central Valley farmers are enthusiastic about the "Two Gate" solution - which would submerge large gate-like structures in the Delta and prevent the endangered smelt from being sucked into pumps. But they admit the plan faces obstacles:

• No details have been released to the public.
• The gates would cost at least $26 million
• The environmental analysis could drag on for years

State Could Raid Water District Revenues

Castaic Lake Water Agency GM Dan Masnada predicts the state could use proposition 1A to take property tax revenues from water districts. Such a move would leave districts with less money for capital improvements and possibly force them to increase rates.

Rainwater Collection Across the West

NY Times highlights the different legal approaches toward rainwater collection in the West. The general takeway: wetter areas (Colorado, Washington) are more likely to prohibit the practice; dryer areas (New Mexico, Arizona) are more likely to allow or even require it.

The best line: a quote from a Colorado Springs columnist saying "the rain barrel is the bong of the Colorado garden. It’s legal to sell one. It’s legal to own one. It’s just not legal to use it for its intended purpose.”

Politics of Disaster Declaration

USA Today picks up AP overview of the drought and in it mentions that governor's recent request for a disaster declaration for Fresno County.

This is how Schwarzenegger framed the drought in his request letter to the Obama administration. But the McClatchy papers have already run a story predicting the administration will reject the request:

"The federal law authorizing presidential declarations specifically include droughts as the kind of disasters that can be recognized. The selection process, though, tilts more toward disasters with outright physical destruction that overwhelm government forces."

As a result, it has been almost thirty years since the feds declared a disaster because of a drought.

One Drought, Many Responses

KPBS reviews the historical reasons San Diego County has so many water agencies and the different approaches those agencies are taking in response to the current drought.

Drought Hurts West CV More than East

Fresno Bee recaps the uneven impact drought and water cutbacks have had on the Central Valley. The west side, farmers have idled packers and thousands of acres. On the east side, agricultural production has hit record levels.

How Cap and Trade is Like Prior Appropriation Rights

An article about the proposed carbon dioxide cap and trade system compares the process for allocating emission permits to prior users to the prior appriopriation water rights scheme that most Western states have adopted:

"Water is a finite quantity, so the cap is often set by nature rather than by a political body, but the effect is the same. In the same way that some people gained the right to withdraw water from a river or lake based on their past use, power companies under the sulfur program gained the right to emit sulfur based on their past emissions. If one views the right to emit gases into the air as a resource such as water, there is little difference between the two cases."

Update: Salazar Appoints Water Czar

At a town hall meeting in Fresno Sunday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced four measures intended to address the state's water woes:

• Water Czar: Deputy Secretary David Hayes will serve as a water czar and coordinate the federal response.


• BDCP: The federal government is renewing its committment to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.


• Grant Money: The administration has allocated $220 million in stimulus funds for water and environmental infrastructure projects and later this month will add $40 million in drought relief aid.


• Expedited Reviews: Federal agencies will review water delivery plans - like the Two Gates project - more quickly.

Among those reporting on the meeting: the Mercury-News, the Central Valley Business Times, and Fox affiliate KPMH.

Legislature Considers Revamping Water Bureaucracy

The Union-Tribune reports that, in an effort to cut costs and improve efficiency, state lawmakers have introduced plans to reshape the state's many regulatory agencies - including those that oversee the water supply.

One plan would fold the Department of Water into a newly created Department of Natural Resources. Another would take control of the State Water Project from the DWR and give it to a new public utility.

The article notes the DWR "has come under fire for being too cozy with its contractors by allegedly inflating urban and farm deliveries and shorting fish and wildlife. Critics suggest the agency's directives helped speed the decline of salmon and smelt that are blamed for today's water crisis."

Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, is leading the reorganization effort. The governor is working on a separate streamlining plan but has yet to introduce it.

Sotomayor and Water

Significance of Water Law

Sonia Sotomayor, during her pre-confirmation talks with individual senators, met with Mark Udall. The Colorado senator asked her about legal issues important to the West.

“Udall said she did not appear to know much about water law but understood the issue ‘may be the most challenging legal question we face over the next 25 to 50 years,” according to the Denver Post.

Environmental Decisions

Interest groups and news outlets have dissected Sotomayor's environmental decisions. Most attention has focused on Riverkeeper v. EPA, a Clean Water Act case, and Didden v. Port Chester, a post-Kelo takings case.

Clean Water Act

In Riverkeeper v. EPA, Sotomayor held that the EPA could consider only the capabilities of different technologies when choosing “the best technology” for preventing power plants from sucking in fish. The EPA could not focus on other factors like the costs or burdens particular technologies might impose on industry.

On appeal, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that the term "best technology" does not refer to technology that will reduce environmental harm the most but rather to technology that will reduce environmental harm the most effectively.

Takings

In Didden v. Village of Port Chester, Sotomayor extended the controverial Kelo rule, which allows local governments to condemn property so businesses can redevelop it, and upheld a condemnation action against property owners who had refused to pay an extra fee to a local redevelopment czar in exchange for permission to develop property in the way they wanted rather than in the way envisioned in the redevelopment zone plan.

Commentators have generally attacked the case. Critiques have appeared in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Volokh Conspiracy.