Lawmaker Seeks Consensus on River: Rep. Jim Costa Urges Irrigation Districts to Have Coherent Voice.
By Tim Sheehan, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Dec. 8–VISALIA — Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, urged Valley irrigation districts that receive water from the San Joaquin River to reach concurrence on legislation to settle a 19-year-old lawsuit over restoring historic salmon runs that disappeared after Friant Dam was built.
Costa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are sponsoring bills in Congress to enable additional water to flow from Millerton Lake to revive an often-dry stretch of the river downstream.
“We need to have some level of consensus,” Costa said Friday morning at a Visalia meeting of nearly 100 people — mostly Valley farmers who also serve on the boards of 22 irrigation districts in the Friant Water Users Authority. “It’s the only way we’re going to successfully move forward.”
The legislation is key to a settlement negotiated last year between the Friant association and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The settlement calls for hundreds of millions of dollars in channel improvements and other changes needed to support the flow of more water. By 2013, salmon would be reintroduced.
But if the agreement is torn asunder — as infighting among water districts and discord among legislators threaten to do — the suit could be revived and the river’s future would be in the hands of U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento. Water officials say they believe even more irrigation water could be lost.
“You’ve got two options that are real,” Costa told the water leaders. “You can support the implementation of the settlement through legislation, or you can let the judge decide.”
A majority of the Friant districts agreed to the terms of the settlement when it was reached last year, even as they grumbled about the losses of between 247,000 and 555,000 acre-feet of water a year depending on water availability.
In Congress, the big hangup is how to pay for the improvements, Costa said.
In the meantime, support for the restoration agreement appears to be softening among Valley farmers.
“We’re not fighting with ‘environmentalists,’ we’re fighting anti-capitalists,” said Rick Cosyns, a Madera farmer and member of the Madera Irrigation District, “and they’re creating economic chaos in this Valley.”
Cosyns backed ditching the settlement and going to court.
“Let’s go ahead and fall on the sword,” Cosyns said. “I want the judge to make the decision … and when he dries up this valley, then maybe we’ll have something the Supreme Court can address.”
Costa said he and Feinstein would continue their legislative efforts “if a majority of the 22 districts want to.”
But, he added, he and Feinstein both agree “that if you change your mind … you can take your chances with the judge.”
Costa urged members “to be mindful of the cards we have in our hands … and I believe our options are limited based on those cards.”
The Bee’s Washington bureau contributed to this report.The reporter can be reachedat tsheehan@fresnobee.com or (559) 622-2410.
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