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CALFED is broken, panel told Creators say the ambitious Delta water program needs overhaul

Published in the Stockton Record on 08/26/05

Article published Aug 26, 2005
CALFED is broken, panel told
Creators say the ambitious Delta water program needs overhaul

SACRAMENTO -- A commission charged with making California's government run smoothly began Thursday the painful process of cleaning up CALFED, the faltering state and federal effort to restore the Delta's environment and safeguard drinking water for 23 million Californians.
For nearly six hours, members of the Little Hoover Commission peppered current and former officials involved with the multibillion-dollar project about what CALFED has done with the taxpayers' money, what went wrong and how future funds can be better spent.

Populations of several fish species -- including the Delta smelt and striped bass -- have crashed, water quality continues to decline, and the earthen levees protecting the entire water-supply system are falling into disrepair.

Earlier this summer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the commission and the state Department of Water Resources to recommend ways to rejigger CALFED to reflect the fact that it will receive far less than the originally proposed $8 billion in funding. He also asked for ways to narrow CALFED's range of duties.

CALFED and its associated Bay-Delta Authority now have their hands in everything from basic science to drinking-water storage to environmental cleanups to levee repairs. Nearly everyone involved in the effort agrees that this scattershot approach may need narrowing.

The question is what goes and what stays, how much money CALFED will get for its new duties, and -- most importantly -- who pays. Former Gov. Pete Wilson and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt each testified Thursday that CALFED has strayed from the original course they helped devise and has failed to charge water users for the benefits they receive.

"CALFED was formed with ambitious goals, born of necessity," Wilson said. "Today, CALFED appears to be losing ground."

Babbitt added: "The Bay-Delta Authority hasn't fulfilled the expectations of those who created it."

An attempt this year to develop a "beneficiary pays" system through legislation stalled when the traditional fights among farmers, cities and environmentalists resurfaced. Similar turf battles led to CALFED's creation in 1994.

State money from bonds is running out, and the political will to ask voters for more does not exist. And 90 percent of the federal money promised to CALFED never materialized.

Babbitt said California could learn from Florida's example. Four successive Florida governors and the state's congressional delegation managed to work together over many years to secure billions of dollars in state and federal money to restore the health of the Everglades. Wilson said California's congressional delegation historically has failed to coalesce on issues of statewide significance such as the Everglades example.

"It is a source of immense frustration," he said.

State Sen. Michael Machado, a Linden Democrat who specializes in water issues, listened in on the hearing and said he was pleased.

"They were asking some fundamental questions," Machado said. "How can you get anything done when you don't have anyone in charge?"

The commission is scheduled to further examine how the CALFED effort does its job during its next hearing in September and is expected to release recommendations in November.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Water Resources should have its review completed by December. State legislators are also holding hearings on the Delta's fish crisis, and Tracy Republican Rep. Richard Pombo's House Resources Committee is planning on discussing that issue this fall.

Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at 916 441-4078 or sacto@recordnet.com

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