Bill feeds Cal-Fed program but some seek alternative

WASHINGTON -- A House panel on Thursday approved a mammoth California water bill, though the most serious questions remain unanswered and the political prospects remain in doubt.

All of which provokes some California water experts into thinking the time has come for a fresh approach.

The current bill authorizes $880 million worth of water storage projects, plus $100 million a year in water project grants. The proposed projects include new reservoirs near the town of Maxwell in the Sacramento Valley and, further south, on the Upper San Joaquin River.

Approved on a quick voice vote by the House Resources Water and Power Subcommittee, the Cal-Fed legislation authored by Riverside Republican Ken Calvert enjoys the support of the entire San Joaquin Valley congressional delegation. These lawmakers call the bill the best chance yet to refresh the federal role in the collaborative water effort.

"If we lose this momentum, it's a real shame," said Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza.

Congress has failed to move similar Cal-Fed bills in recent years, because of several still-unresolved obstacles. One is a seemingly unrelated dispute over the federal Davis-Bacon Act and what wage rules apply to water-project workers.

"All of the work that needed to be done as of the day this bill was introduced still needs to be done," said Ed Osann, a Washington representative for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "This glass is much more than half empty."

Consequently, a political undercurrent is quietly moving in another direction, that of replacing the big Cal-Fed legislation with something much simpler. The thinking is that Cal-Fed already has what it needs. Congress last year authorized feasibility studies for the Los Vaqueros, Sites Reservoir and Upper San Joaquin River storage projects.

These studies will take several years, at least, to complete. California's approval of Proposition 50, moreover, will provide the existing Cal-Fed program upward of $2 billion.

"We have the structure and the funds now to fully establish ourselves," said Patrick Wright, director of the California Bay- Delta Water Authority. "With the state bond, we have enough money to keep going for two or three years."

Wright said "the key thing that's missing" at present is for Congress to assert a federal intention to participate in the ongoing Cal-Fed program, plus some federal dollars to help. Timothy Quinn, the politically engaged vice president of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, agrees at least in part.

"We want a policy statement," Quinn said. "We're not looking for big dollars in the near term."

(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, www.shns.com

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