It’s time to use California’s budget surplus money to fix key aqueduct and canals

To get the new year started right, California’s Senate Republicans — all nine of them — are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to do something that makes a lot of sense.

Their call is to fund badly needed repairs to the key waterways that ship water to communities and farms throughout the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

The major one is the California Aqueduct — the 444-mile-long structure that carries water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. The others are the 116-mile Delta-Mendota Canal, which starts at Tracy and ends at Mendota, and Friant-Kern Canal. It begins at Millerton Lake near Fresno and heads south to Kern County, covering 152 miles.

The aqueduct delivers most of its water to millions of people living in Southern California, while the two other canals serve both Valley communities and farmers.

The three waterways share a problem: So much groundwater pumping has occurred in the Valley over the decades, mostly by farmers, that the land under the canals has sunk in places. Geologists call that subsidence. When that happens, water does not flow as well as it once did, but rather gets pooled up. That means water deliveries don’t happen as they are supposed to.

Fixing the problems caused by subsidence can be done, but it is expensive. This is where the Senate Republicans come in.

Using unexpected money

In a Dec. 16 letter to Newsom, the Senate GOP members note that California is expected to have a $31 billion budget surplus in 2022-23.

Why not, they argue, spend some of that unexpected windfall on fixing up the canals? The Republicans would dedicate $685 million for repairs to the aqueduct and the Delta-Mendota and Friant-Kern.

Another $2.6 billion would be spent on building the Sites Reservoir, a facility proposed to be built north of Sacramento and the only major new water project in the works in California.

Among the Republicans raising the call is Sen. Andreas Borgeas of Fresno, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“With both drought and uncertain economic years ahead, it is crucial we invest in our water infrastructure while we still have the opportunity,” the GOP members say in their correspondence.

Surplus not forever

Their point is well taken, in that surpluses are not a sure thing one can budget for.

And subsidence cannot be neglected for too long, or the problem will get worse and render the canals even less efficient.

It should be noted that the Friant Water Authority, which oversees the Friant-Kern Canal, already has much of the funding it needs to do its $500 million repair job.

Among the users of Friant water are the cities of Fresno, Lindsay and Orange Cove. Also helping pay for the repair work are the Tulare County farmers whose pumping caused the ground to fall.

The Friant authority already has about $248 million in funding from the federal government to put toward fixes.

Newsom has approved $39.2 million as well for Friant-Kern, and he has set aside $37 million for the aqueduct and $24 million for Delta-Mendota.

Time is now

“Where water flows, food can grow.” That slogan, and variations of it, appear on signs throughout the farm country between Bakersfield and Sacramento. California is home to the nation’s most abundant agriculture, both in terms of variety as well as value of the crops grown; total cash receipts received by farmers in 2020 were $49.1 billion.

So fixing the main waterways that farmers depend on is crucial to supporting this vital industry. So too is repairing the main aqueduct that delivers water to Southern California and some communities on the Central Coast.

As Newsom readies to present his next budget in first month of the new year, he would do well to consider the request of the Senate Republicans to use surplus money for the waterway repairs. Get the aqueduct and canals back in proper working order, and the entire state will benefit.