Longer-term water sales are being considered
Chico Enterprise Record - 3/16/03
By Heather Hacking, staff writer

Although all the sales of north-state water to south-state users have been one-year deals so far, longer-term surface water transfers with Metropolitan Water District and the Department of Water Resources are being considered.

Although formal discussions have not yet begun, Western Canal Water District and Richvale Irrigation District have said they are willing to hear what the water buyers have to say.

If the plans go through, the water districts would want to do some form of groundwater substitution program for the surface water sold. In Butte County, this would trigger Measure G, which requires a permit for a sale or substitution of groundwater out of the county.

In all likelihood it will be a year or two before a deal, if any, can be worked out.

Western has indicated it might first want to start with a 5-year option plan, but there has been talk about a 10-year option.

An option is when someone pays a small amount of money for the right to buy something in the future. If the deal doesn't go through, the potential buyer still must pay the option fee.

In the case of recent water options, the price to reserve the right to buy has been $5 an acre-foot.

Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District in Glenn County has also been approached to work out some form of a longer-term water option deal for times when water is scarce. Manager Van Tenney said there are so many issues that would need to be dealt with. "We told Metropolitan we would be willing to talk with them," he said.

"I would not want people to perceive it is a foregone conclusion we will have a long-term relationship," Tenney said. "We have not begun those discussions."

Jerry Johns, head of water transfers for the Department of Water Resources, said DWR is also in the longer-term option discussion. From the department's perspective, it makes sense that if Metropolitan doesn't need the water in a given year, the department could buy it if needed for the dry year transfer program or the Environmental Water Account.

The dry year transfer program offers water to urban and rural users when water is short. The Environmental Water Account purchases water to increase river flows when more water is needed for fish and wildlife.

All three districts took part in this year's surface water transfers that were negotiated with Metropolitan, which serves 18 million people in Southern California.

The deal involved idling farmland, most of which is historically planted in rice. These one-year transfers included Glenn-Colusa, 60,000 acre-feet; Western Canal, 20,000 acre-feet; and Richvale Irrigation District, 17,200 acre-feet.

In a separate deal, Butte Water District is negotiating to sell 10,000 acre-feet of water to the Department of Water Resources for either the dry year transfer program or the Environmental Water Account.

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