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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-drain30jul30,1,1006338.story">http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-drain30jul30,1,1006338.story</A></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=deckhead>WATER WORLD</DIV>
<H1>Down the drain</H1>
<DIV class=body>Reclamation engineers and members of Congress knew 50
years ago, when they decided to bring clear mountain waters hundreds of
miles to the San Joaquin Valley for crop irrigation, that the valley's
soils would brew an environmental problem. Their solution was to send the
problem downstream. The cost of that eyes-wide-shut mistake is finally
coming due, to the tune of at least $900 million.<BR><BR>The arable soil
on thousands of acres of farmland in the Westlands Water District, in
Fresno and Kings counties, sits atop an impermeable layer of clay. Blocked
from draining downward, the irrigation water sat there, dissolving
selenium and other impurities in the soil. The polluted brew collected at
root level and killed crops, so engineers put in tiled drains. <BR><BR>The
project collected selenium-tainted water from the farms and sent it 82
miles north via the San Luis Drain to Kesterson Reservoir, a national
wildlife refuge. Ultimately, the drain was to be extended to the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta south and west of Sacramento, but it
stopped at Kesterson because of cost and environmental concerns.<BR><BR>In
1983, wildlife officials began finding deformed bird embryos and dead
birds at Kesterson, victims of selenium poisoning. The refuge was closed
and the birds frightened away from its waters. Filtered and diluted runoff
was redistributed into streams feeding the San Joaquin River. In the
1990s, landowners sued the federal government, claiming damage to their
property values and demanding completion of the promised drain to the
delta. Given that the delta is where giant pumps collect fresh water and
send it south to San Joaquin Valley farms and to millions of water users
throughout California, the idea was no better than when it was first
considered.<BR><BR>A federal appeals court sided with the farmers in 2000
but gave the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation options: 1) Finish the drain, a
nonstarter. 2) Send the polluted water to the Pacific Ocean by pipeline,
also unacceptable. 3) Buy up some of the irrigated land and turn it into
evaporation ponds for the tainted water, keeping it in one place.
<BR><BR>No. 3, at a cost of about $900 million, is the only
environmentally acceptable one of the options. An even cleaner, though
more costly, solution would be for the federal government to buy up all
300,000 acres of poorly drained land and take them out of irrigated use,
also freeing new water for thirsty California. </DIV><BR
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