Peripheral Canal

In several of my previous posts, I have referred to the Peripheral Canal as being a bad idea that Gov. Schwarzenegger has resurrected from it's voter rejection back in the 1980's. However, you should not take my word for it. Jonas Minton, writing in the Sacramento Bee this week has done a much better job. Minton, one time Deputy Director of the Department of Water Resources, State of CA, has surely forgotten more about this project than I would ever know.

While Minton is surely knowledgeable himself, he is wary of what the Governor is NOT telling us.

Look at the critical information they are not telling us: How large would such a canal be? How much would it cost? Would it be $1 billion, $5 billion, $10 billion? Who would pay for it? Who would benefit (e.g. corporate agriculture) and what subsidies would they receive? How would it survive a rise in sea level? The proposed intake near Hood just south of Sacramento and the canal would be less than 5 feet above current sea level. If billions of gallons of freshwater were diverted each day before entering the Delta, what would that do to the farms and fish dependent on that water?

The Governor's prescience seems much like that of President Bush in the lead up to the Iraq War. From Bob Woodward we learned that Bush started to plan the Iraq war only 3 months after 9/11. Such is the risk of leadership that one has to personally carry the full responsibility for every such decision. You have to be right every time. Bush wasn't and it looks as if Schwarzenegger isn't either.