If canal drains Delta, what will we lose?

By Craig Anderson

If the state government-backed peripheral canal or a dual conveyance system is dug through the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and fresh water is piped around the estuary to thirsty southern California, what will be lost?

If a majority of the Delta’s 700 waterways and 538,000 acres planted to agriculture are subjected to salt intrusion because not enough fresh water is entering the Delta and the area is ruined, the economic consequences would be enormous, said Alex Hildebrand, Manteca area farmer and engineer for the South Delta Water District.

“Everything would be affected, the transportation systems, power grids, gas storage on McDonald Island, wave actions on urban levees would increase, Lathrop’s evolution into a city would stop, people living in the Delta would be unable to stay, businesses would be ruined, ag losses would be staggering, recreation such as fishing and boating would cease,” said Mr. Hildebrand. “And Antioch, Rio Vista and Fairfield that rely on fresh Delta water would be devastated.”

Because the assorted agencies attempting to “solve’ the Delta’s water problems seem unable or unwilling to explain how removing MORE water from an already stressed Delta environment will somehow save the estuary, what could be lost can only be estimated.

Apparently, those agencies have not done the necessary research to discover exactly what less water would do to the Delta or if they have the results remain hidden from public scrutiny.

What comprises the Delta? It covers 738,000 acres with more than 700 miles of waterways; much of the land is below sea level and is kept dry by 1,100 miles of levees; and its land and waterway support communities, agriculture and recreation while providing essential habitat for fish and wildlife.

San Joaquin Supervisor Leroy Ornellas points out that a significant part of the state’s agriculture comes from the Delta (more than $2 billion) via crops such as corn, grain and hay, alfalfa, pasture, tomatoes, asparagus, fruit, safflower, pears and winegrapes.

However, Mr. Ornellas makes an interesting point when he says, “Of course, for those of us near the Delta and who farm its land and use its water, the Delta is of huge importance. There are those in government and elsewhere who are convinced that agriculture in the Southern part of the San Joaquin Valley is more important than that in the Delta.”

So, if the Delta goes dry or becomes a salt-soaked, brackish backwater estuary without agriculture and dead habitats and deserted towns, that loss would be less damaging to the state than to lose the agriculture in the southern Valley.

“Fresno County alone accounts for more than $3 billion in agriculture, so that viewpoint is understandable but obviously completely shortsighted,” Mr. Ornellas said.

A dead Delta means the loss of wildlife species which, at last counting, numbered 52 mammals, 22 reptile and amphibian species, 225 birds, 54 species of fish and 150 species of flowering plants along with approximately 260 invasive species.

Major anadromous fish using the Delta include salmon, striped bass, steelhead trout, American shad and sturgeon.

“Anybody who believes an isolated facility such as a canal will save the Delta is sadly mistaken because the area would lose much needed fresh water,” commented Mike Robinson, former president and current board member of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation.

He said that of the $1.7 billion in ag value produced annually in San Joaquin County nearly one billion is directly related to the Delta and its continued health.

“Initially only surplus water was to be exported and the Delta was also supposed to receive five million acre feet from northern rivers but the Wild Rivers Act stopped that,” Mr. Robinson said. “In fact, since 1960 the Delta has been operating every year with a five million acre feet deficit.”

The 2000 Census shows 515,264 people living within the Delta in San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties with major cities of Sacramento, Stockton, West Sacramento and Oakley also within the boundaries along with another 14 unincorporated towns and villages
Rivers flowing into the Delta are the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Mokelumne and Consumnes.

Diversions directly from the Delta are done by the State Water Project, Federal Central Valley Project, Contra Costa Canal, North Bay Aqueduct, City8 of Vallejo, Western Delta industry and more than 1,800 agricultural users.

A Delta ruined by a canal siphoning its life-giving water away to southern California would no longer support 12 million recreational user days annually, including visitors to 290 shoreline recreational areas, 300 marinas and about 500,000 boaters.

The dead Delta means no boaters, vacant marinas, closed recreational areas and billions of dollars lost due to ancillary businesses taking a huge revenue loss.

Boating alone accounts for more than $450 million annually and fishing generates more than $350 million per year according to a Delta Protection Commission survey which also said 23.5 percent of registered boat owners and 23 percent of licensed anglers in California recreate in the Delta.

Mr. Robinson said the agencies involved have not researched the cost of a canal nor its impact on the environment, agriculture, businesses and the towns and population of the Delta.

“The canal is a foregone conclusion and all the studies are eyewash,” he said.

And the Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution rejecting the peripheral canal along with a number of other conclusions contained in the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force’s report.