BizFed Tours the Delta – SoCal’s Water Hub

BizFed members this month completed a whirlwind 2-day MWD-sponsored inspection trip of the State Water Project and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region that included informational seminars, behind-the-scenes facility tours, a special Post-Election Discussion and Recap, and wide-ranging discussions about the myriad issues facing this hub of California’s water delivery system.

 “This was an exemplary opportunity to learn in-depth about this key state water supply,” said BizFed Chair-Elect Mark Wilbur. “Our economy is so reliant on water that we have to do all we can to make it as reliable as possible because it holds the very basic key to all of our livelihoods.”

Among highlights:

·          A new plan being considered to build tunnels to carry water supplies under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the pumps that feed the California Aqueduct. (Check out a Sacramento Bee story and graphic here.)

·          Water traveling through the Delta is crucial for our region – supplying 30 percent of Southern California’s drinking water and irrigating about 45 percent of the fruits and vegetables produced in the United States.

·          The Delta is California’s most important estuary and a vital environmental resource, home to more than 500 plant, bird, animal and fish species.

·          But an aging infrastructure, threats to the fragile ecosystem, and surging demand are placing unsustainable strains on the system.

·          Legislative outreach is needed this coming year to ensure lawmakers – particularly all of our LA County lawmakers – craft an equitable and co-equal measure for the 2012 state ballot to finally address this crisis.

Gilbert Ivey, Chief Administrative Officer of the Metropolitan Water District, accompanied more than four dozen BizFed and other leaders from across Southern and Northern California on the educational trip – outlining the long history and challenges now facing the 700-mile system of waterways, sloughs, canals, tracts and islands

To see more pictures from the trip: