‘Dream’ comes true for water future
STOCKTON — In the end, it wasn’t very controversial.
Nineteen years after San Joaquin County water interests overwhelmingly rejected a water-sharing plan with rival East Bay Municipal Utility District, a similar plan earned the unanimous approval of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The 5-0 vote shows how times have changed since 1998, as increasing state regulations force Californians to address unsustainable groundwater use, and the state grapples with an increasingly volatile climate.
One thing is for sure: Whoever coined the cliche “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over” (it likely wasn’t Mark Twain) never heard of the newly approved DREAM project, which has widespread support.
“Most often when you’re talking about water you’re talking about conflicting interest and a lot of opposition,” Supervisor Kathy Miller said before Tuesday’s vote. “It’s taken a lot of collaboration and negotiation to get here.”
The plan calls for East Bay MUD to give about 1,000 acre-feet of its own Mokelumne River water to local farmers, who will use the water to irrigate a vineyard. The extra river water means the farmers won’t have to pump as much groundwater, which effectively transfers the East Bay MUD water into the aquifer.
For its part, East Bay MUD will be able to extract up to half of that newly stored water for transport to its 1.3 million customers in the Bay Area.
In that sense, San Joaquin County stands to gain about 500 acre-feet of water through the one-time deal. That’s a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things, but it’s not the amount of water that’s important. What officials really hope to do is learn from this experiment in the hopes of doing larger projects in the future to restore the county’s depleted groundwater supply and perhaps give water exporters a place to park water during extended droughts.
“I think this is something we need to try to experiment with,” Supervisor Chuck Winn said. “We have to look at more creative ways in terms of how we utilize our water.”
San Joaquin County closely guards its precious groundwater, with a county ordinance forbidding its export unless certain precautions are taken. Tuesday’s action marks the first time that a groundwater export permit has been approved.
But again, officials emphasized that the project will be a net gain because East Bay MUD can only take back half of the extra water that the utility will be providing in the first place.
“I learned when I was a kid that a penny saved is a penny earned. Here it is two pennies earned,” said Kris Balaji, director of county Public Works. “This is of great benefit for the eastern San Joaquin groundwater basin.”
Experts will monitor the effect on local groundwater levels, if any, Balaji said. A locally controlled committee has the right to reduce or shut down East Bay MUD’s extraction of water if any property owners in the area are harmed.