Groups
protest water delivery
Board
urges negotiation in dispute over water to housing developments.
By
Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
August 22,2005
Twenty protesters oppose a bid to allow San Joaquin River water delivery to
four housing developments and the Table Mountain Rancheria in the foothills east
of Fresno.
Farmers, environmentalists, foothill residents and a federal wildlife agency
last month filed protests, many saying the river should be restored before
expanding delivery boundaries near Millerton Lake.
"The river is dried up downstream," said George Folsom of the
Fresno-area group Revive the San Joaquin. "Why should foothill growth
continue if we haven't addressed river restoration?"
Protesters include the Fresno County Sportsmen's Club, the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the Mono Indians of North Fork Rancheria.
The opposition comes from as far away as Stockton.
The California Water Resources Control Board, arbiter of state water
disputes, will review each protest and encourage protesters to negotiate a
settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The bureau, owner and operator of Friant Dam, petitioned the state in May to
move delivery lines.
"We will investigate the protests only if the parties can't reach
resolution," said board spokeswoman Liz Kanter. "If necessary, the
board will hold a hearing and issue a decision."
The petition for the change followed publicity early this year that a city of
10,000 planned for south of Millerton Lake could not obtain river water because
it was in an area designated for farm water delivery.
Bureau officials were aware of the discrepancy in the 1990s. At that time,
they set the issue aside and waited to see what the federal court would decide
on a long-running lawsuit over restoring the river.
After the issue surfaced in January, the developers of Millerton New Town,
JPJ Inc., asked the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to delay approval on part
of the project until the delivery line was moved.
The bureau then petitioned the state board, asking to move the delivery line
for Millerton New Town, Sky Harbour, Hidden Lakes Estates and Brighton Crest.
Officials also filed a second petition for the Table Mountain Rancheria.
Bill Luce, who heads the bureau office in Fresno, said the petitions have
nothing to do with new water purchases from the federal government at Millerton
Lake.
Moving the delivery line, or the "place of use," simply allows the
bureau to send river water to the developments, he said. Developers would buy
the water from current contractors, such as an irrigation district or the city
of Fresno.
Ben Ewell of Fresno, the project's master developer, said he has been
discussing issues with many of the authors of protest letters in recent weeks.
He said he has been in weekly conference calls with many of the significant
protesting interests, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and
California Department of Fish & Game.
He suggested a resolution to the issue could be reached as early as the end
of September.
At full build-out, Brighton Crest and Millerton New Town will consist of
3,500 homes and require about 2,300 acre-feet of water.
Today, Brighton Crest has 75 homes, and tract maps have been approved for 900
homes in Millerton New Town. The "place of use" issue has delayed
another set of maps with about 900 homes, Ewell said.
Protesters said they think resolution of a 17-year-old lawsuit over river
restoration should come first. The lawsuit will begin a key phase next year on
how the river will be restored.
Ewell said: "We assured them early on that the granting of this request
will have no impact on the litigation."
Moving the "place of use" line will not result in Millerton New
Town and Brighton Crest taking water away from anyone else or pumping more water
out of the San Joaquin River, Ewell said.
"We do have a framework for an agreement," he added.
Stockton-area farm water officials have blamed poor water quality on the
river's reduced flow as a result of Friant Dam near Fresno. Two Stockton-based
water groups, the Central Delta Water Agency and the South Delta Water Agency,
oppose the bureau's petition.
"We're going to fight it all the way down to the end," said lawyer
Dante Nomellini, representing the Central Delta Water Agency. "We don't
have anything against the developers, but we think you have to take care of the
river."
Protesters also pointed out that the bureau has been delivering river water
without state authorization to Brighton Crest.
"The current operations from Friant Dam have contributed to the drying
of 60 river miles of the San Joaquin River," wrote Steven A. Edmondson of
NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. "This action only makes
conditions worse."
One protester was worried about future water supplies for those who own homes
in the foothills. Gary Temple, president of the Sierra and Foothill Citizens
Alliance, said the foothill region east of Fresno already has problems with
well-water supplies.
"If we do have a major supply problem," said Temple, who lives in
Auberry, "our only alternative is to draw water off the San Joaquin."
The reporters can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com
and mbenjamin@fresnobee.com or
(559) 441-6330.
