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B(2) Glass Half Full

"Basically on the right track," is what enviros are calling the Department of the Interior's final decision this October on the accounting system used to measure Central Valley Project water dedicated to environmental restoration under 1992's Central Valley Project Improvement Act.

Interior's decision comes in response to a federal court ruling last spring requiring the Department to provide the full 800,000 acre feet of water dedicated by the statute (so-called "(b)2 water") to the environment and develop an accounting system for it. Previously, Interior had argued that it did not need to measure the water precisely, so long as it implemented certain environmental protection measures.

Interior's accounting system measures the environmental water differently depending on the fish protection measures being employed. For example, releases from dams will be measured in terms of reduced storage, while pumping limits will be measured as export reductions. "The system acknowledges the reality that we use the water different ways at different times. In that respect it's an attempt to be very honest about the amount of water that's actually being dedicated to fish and wildlife purposes," says Save the Bay's Cynthia Koehler, adding that enviros do have some "relatively small technical concerns" about accuracy.

Koehler says the big problem with the decision is that Interior has given itself "almost complete discretion to decide how much of the (b)2 water it's going to double count for other regulatory purposes," such as the Endangered Species Act. "The whole point of the CVPIA was to get beyond crisis management to restoration," she says. "We didn't need the CVPIA to get water for the ESA."

Whatever the environmentalists' reservations about Interiors's accounting system, they are happier than the CVP water users. "Interior's accounting methodology is unintelligible and punitive, especially to CVP export contractors," says the Central Valley Project Water Association's Jason Peltier, adding "They've walked away from trying to justify their actions biologically." The users contend that the statute requires (b)2 water measurements to be based on the CVP's yield during the drought period of 1928 - 1934. Under such a system, says Interior attorney Alf Brandt "you'd only have (b)2 water for fish in dry years." Litigation will continue at least through the spring.

Contact: Cynthia Koehler (510)452-9261 or Jason Peltier (916)448-1638

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