Agriculture Today - June 2008
Special Section: Water
What is the Peripheral Canal?
By Mike Wade, Executive Director
California Farm Water Coalition
William H. Hall, California’s first State Engineer, recognized the importance of water to our State’s future as he tackled a five-year study beginning in 1878 on the flow of water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The California Legislature at that time authorized a $100,000 budget for the study that would improve navigation and drainage on the rivers, determine the effects of hydraulic mining and assess the irrigation needs of the Central Valley.
His study was cut short as some legislators challenged his work and charges of misuse of State funds were levied against him. Hall survived the legal challenges but his study on the irrigation needs of the Central Valley was never fully completed.
The concept of a canal or closed conduit traversing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta surfaced in 1944 as U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials attempted to develop a plan to avoid a salinity problem in the Delta that was becoming more pronounced. Initially, Reclamation believed that water from Shasta Dam would be adequate to establish a “fresh water lake” in the Delta that would keep the salinity from encroaching upon the water supplies needed by cities on the edge of the Delta.
The concept of a Peripheral Canal resurfaced in 1963 when Reclamation submitted the canal idea to the Interagency Delta Committee. After two years of public review and comments, the response was almost unanimous in moving forward with the canal. California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) had the authority to construct the canal but preferred to have Reclamation build it and then turn its control over to the State. But this proposal got a lukewarm reception from Reclamation.
The State argued that much of the canal would parallel Interstate 5 and material excavated for the canal could be used as highway fill. In 1968 the State advanced $2 million to purchase rights of way in San Joaquin County for the canal with the idea of repaying the costs when canal construction began.
Public perception toward the Peripheral Canal began to change and public sentiment, especially from Contra Costa County, viewed the canal as a threat to their fresh water supplies. Environmental concerns also began popping up with challenges toward the potential impact the canal would have on the Delta and its fish populations. DWR Director William Gianelli responded to the increasing environmental concerns in a Dec. 4, 1969, speech to the Irrigation Districts Association, by saying, “Californians must not ‘fall into the quagmire trap of Chicken Little emotionalists.’”
In early 1975 with construction set to begin that summer, then DWR Director John Teerink announced a one-year delay.
DWR’s proposal included a 42-mile Peripheral Canal that would be a joint state-federal program to circumvent the Delta channels and carry fresh water around the Delta to the State and federal pumping plants near Tracy. The canal would release fresh water into the Delta along its length to provide water for irrigation and the environment in the Delta.
Opponents continued to argue against the Peripheral Canal and its future was placed on a statewide referendum as Proposition 9 in 1982. Voters rejected the Peripheral Canal at the ballot box and today the canal’s future remains uncertain.
What is still certain, however, are conditions in the Delta remain tenuous as water users south of the Delta are increasingly faced with a reduced water supply caused by dry weather and court decisions that prevent the water from flowing southward. Meanwhile, the CA DWR retains the authority to construct a Peripheral Canal.
“Californians must not ‘fall into the quagmire trap of Chicken Little emotionalists.’”
CA Department of Water Resources
Director William Gianelli, Dec. 4, 1969.