Barriers to Trade
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
via DW) The Planning and Conservation League worries that DWR’s plan to “merge” SWP and CVP operations (to facilitate water transfers between the projects) is a stealth attempt to “avoid commitments to protect Northern California and Bay Delta resources by minimizing requirements to mitigate impacts of these transfers.”
No, it’s not. Those projects take water from the same place in the Delta. Since co-management is about reducing paperwork, not increasing volumes, PCL should SUPPORT it. In fact, I imagine that these projects will need to be merged in the future anyway. The current patchwork of canals, pumps and agencies makes it harder to move water in the system and distorts decisions of where to expand/improve the system. That’s taking water rights for granted, btw.
PCL should encourage streamlining of water operations and transfers. Since these are going to happen anyway, lowering their costs will reduce inefficiency — leaving more water (and time and money!) for everyone.
Bottom Line: California’s water “system” is not monolithic — it’s a mess of compromises, fudges, duplications, barriers and black holes that’s built up over the past 150+ years. We can do “more with less,” but only if we raise efficiency in the system.
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