Modesto Irrigation District water deal stirs up debate

When San Francisco came calling for some of the Modesto Irrigation District's water, people started asking questions:

• Why can't you get it from that big ocean next to your city by building a desalinization plant?

• Why can't your Bay Area customers conserve more water?

• Wouldn't you rather buy giant bags of North Coast river water that can be sent to San Francisco by tugboat?

The proposed sale of some of the MID's Tuolumne River supply has stirred a vigorous discussion — no surprise with California water issues.

It happened Tuesday night at the Old Fisherman's Club, a wood-paneled hangout where the MID kicked off the public meetings on the sale and heard mostly from skeptical farmers.

It has happened in cyberspace, where water watchers latched onto the The Bee's coverage and weighed in by e-mail — including a company promoting bags filled with abundant Mad River water.

Exact details about the sale remain under wraps because they are being negotiated. MID officials did say that the water — made available by conservation projects along the canals — could be as much as a seventh of the average annual deliveries to farmers over the past 20 years.

And it's likely that the price paid by San Francisco will be many, many times what the MID's farmers pay.

The details will come into focus as a board vote on the sale approaches. For now, here's a rough outline of where things stand:

• WHY SELL? — The income could pay for about $110 million in improvements to the irrigation system, MID General Manager Allen Short said.

The alternative, he said, could be fivefold to sevenfold increases in water rates, which are just $6.75 per acre-foot this year.

With the sale, Short said, "we can hold the existing rate structure in place for a number of years well into the future."

He added that the sale would be just water, not the underlying water rights that are one of the MID's biggest assets.

• WHY BUY? — San Francisco draws its main supply from the Tuolumne, upstream from the MID's diversion at Don Pedro Reservoir.

A shortfall of 27,500 acre-feet could develop by 2035, said Steven Ritchie, assistant general manager for the water enterprise at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. It supplies about 2.5 million customers in four Bay Area counties.

MID officials said an initial sale of 2,200 acre-feet could bring in about $1.5 million, which works out to $682 per acre-foot.

That's not such a high price, Ritchie said Friday, compared with alternatives such as desalination and waste-water recycling.

"For us, that kind of price range works because we don't have to build any new plumbing to pick up this water from MID," Ritchie said.

He added that water conservation is part of the plan but will not be enough to make up the shortfall.

• WHO'S WORRIED? — San Francisco has tangled with environmentalists since the days of John Muir, who fought to keep Hetch Hetchy Reservoir out of Yosemite National Park.

A century later, the proposed sale has stirred opposition from people who would rather see the water sustain the river downstream of Don Pedro.

"Most of the Tuolumne River is already diverted and it's literally killing the river," said Patrick Koepele, deputy executive director of the Tuolumne River Trust, in an e-mail last week. "MID's proposed water sale proves that they have extra water. Instead of shipping it to San Francisco, that water should stay here where we need it to revive the Tuolumne River and maintain a healthy ag-based economy."