Water and the Matter of Trust

Technically, the angry debate over possible federal sale of the Central Valley Project to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests does not affect implementation of December’s historic agreement to improve water quality in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But in reality, the future of the Central Valley Project--the network of federal dams, reservoirs and irrigation canals that brings water from the north to farms in the southern San Joaquin Valley--is inextricably linked to the stability of the bay-delta accord. So too is any hope for the fairer and more rational water policy that has so long eluded this arid state.

The bay-delta accord, reached between California and the federal government, will improve the estuary ecosystem, which has been threatened by continuing water diversions. The delta is perhaps the state’s most important water resource. The agreement is noteworthy because of the careful balance it strikes in allocating water to bolster threatened wetland species while providing a reliable supply to farms and cities. Workshops got under way last week to help state officials draft new water-diversion permits based on the accord’s principles.

The pact was also rightly hailed on process grounds. Where the needs of large growers and landholders once dominated decisions about water allocations in California, the bay-delta negotiations involved all interested parties, including residential and industrial water users and environmental groups. The agreement evolved from the consensus of those parties; it was not imposed from above.

Sadly, consensus of that sort is largely absent in the simmering debate in Washington over the Central Valley Project. Lawmakers under pressure to shrink the federal government and inclined toward privatization have been discussing proposals to sell off the CVP, the nation’s largest irrigation project.

Proponents of such a sale, including Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Rocklin), argue that the CVP’s customers, primarily agribusiness and San Joaquin Valley water districts, could operate the project more economically than the feds. They insist they would set aside enough water for environmental purposes. However, the proposed purchase price is only $826 million, a fraction of the $3.4 billion (unadjusted for inflation) that it cost to build the project over 40 years.

This matter should cause all members of Congress to pause. So should the heavy-handed process by which proponents have tried to advance their plan. There have been no public hearings on the financing question, no opportunity for interested groups to weigh in on the advisability of such a sale, no evaluation of the 1992 law reforming and modernizing CVP contracting, no effort to build consensus by bringing all parties to the table.

This headlong push to privatize not only changes the rules governing how millions of Californians receive water but undermines the trust on which the bay-delta accord was forged. In the long running Western water wars, trust has been as scarce a commodity as water itself and no less precious.