Battles have raged for decades about how to get water through the delta for use in Central and Southern California. It's been five years since a coalition of state and federal agencies, water users, and environmental and public interest groups declared a truce and joined forces to work on a plan to fix the Bay-Delta system. Since two-thirds of Californians get their drinking water from the delta, and almost half of the state's fruits and vegetables depend on delta water, it's crucial to find a way to move water through the delta in an environmentally friendly way. One innovative plan in the report calls for the establishment of an Environmental Water Account, which fishery biologists could tap into when additional instream flows are needed, thus reducing the impact on agricultural and urban water users. If it sounds as though the problem is on its way to being solved, you may be jumping ahead.
Many agricultural users complain that there are no major water storage facilities in the report.
They say the latest plan de-emphasizes the development of additional surface water storage capacity and puts storage too far into the future. They also claim that too much emphasis on fish restoration will push many thousands of farm acres out of production. Some urban interests also have been critical of the plan. Cities want a reliable supply of water. Many in the south state counties, represented through the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, say they don't see enough water reliability in the present plan.