Water wars

San Francisco has maintained water rights to the Tuolumne River, a pristine source that originates high in the Sierra Nevada, since the early 1900s. Now, those rights are being threatened by a state proposal to rescue the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The state’s plan, which was first proposed in October 2016 and released as a final draft last month, would increase water flows to the Tuolumne and other rivers that support the delta. The state’s laudable goal is to address sharp declines in the delta’s native species and related degradation of the surrounding ecosystem.

But the state says if the delta is to be repaired, someone will have to give up some water. The state plan calls for restricting San Francisco’s ability to draw water from the river. City officials are firmly opposed to the plan, which has put San Francisco on the same political side as the state’s conservative agricultural communities.

“San Francisco has heavily invested in its water systems going back for 100 years,” said Steven Ritchie, assistant general manager for water for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “We didn’t do it with other people’s money. It was all because of the ratepayers in our service area.”

Ritchie said the SFPUC has proposed a plan to the state that would improve habitat and fish populations without the dramatic water flow restrictions.

“Under the state’s plan, we could see system-wide rationing in the 40-to-50percent range,” Ritchie said. “Our goal is to have no more than 20 percent rationing.”

The State Water Resources Control Board disagrees. In a statement, the agency said that San Francisco’s proposed plan “does not provide the flow-related habitat benefits that the State Water Board’s flow objectives provide.”

A potentially litigious standoff seems more inevitable by the day.

The state must honor its goals toward the delta, and San Francisco’s water rights must be honored as well. Negotiation is the only appropriate answer to this scenario.

But the fight over the Tuolumne also offers a lesson for the entire state. As climate change inevitably places restrictions on our water supply, every community will face these kinds of challenges. The sooner water agencies plan for the future, the less chaotic it will be.