Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the March 30, 2014, Sacramento Bee.

Last week’s rain notwithstanding, the drought should act to concentrate Californians on water and how to create a reliable water system.

Instead, it is spawning isolated proposals with little attention to cost and who would pay.

In one direction, Gov. Jerry Brown favors a new “conveyance” with his proposed twin tunnels project. The capital cost of the two 40-foot-diameter, 30-mile-long tunnels around or under the Delta is estimated to total $19.9 billion in 2012 dollars. Borne by whom? People benefiting from the project, the water contractors south of the Delta? The comment period on this proposal ends on June 13.

In another direction, Reps. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, favor an emphasis on storage. They propose congressional authorization of a new Sites offstream reservoir to store water pumped from the Sacramento River in Colusa County. This would require flooding the Antelope Valley and constructing two dams up to 310 feet high and nine smaller saddle dams.

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