Tracy Press

Second Thoughts: Keeping enough of the wet stuff flowing through the Delta is everyone's problem.

If you’re worried about a flood — or the possibility of paying mandatory flood insurance — be thankful if you call Tracy home.

Look over FEMA’s Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map and be reassured. Only a tiny part of Tracy proper, a small corner north of Interstate 205 that includes a portion of the auto plaza, is considered at risk for a once-in-100-years flood.

If FEMA is right — and that’s no guarantee, if past performance is any indication — Tracy’s risk of a flood is small compared with that of its San Joaquin County neighbors.

Take Stockton, for instance. That city’s quite-expansive flood map is a jigsaw puzzle — your front yard might be in a flood zone, but the neighbor to your rear could be considered high and dry. And let’s not forget Lathrop, where every homeowner should apparently invest in a canoe.

Even though floodwaters aren’t likely to lap at Tracy doorsteps, we should still be concerned about the fates of our neighbors. Not only would tax dollars likely be spent to help flooded areas recover, but the levees standing between those communities and disaster also protect the Delta water supply we depend upon.

Their problem is, by extension, ours.

So Tracy residents shouldn’t be surprised that this city is also near the heart of the region’s biggest and most far-reaching water debate. About 10 miles near, to be exact.

That’s where the Banks and Tracy pumping plants suck water from the Delta and send it to Parts Previously Unwatered — most notably, the Los Angeles Basin, the traditional villain in the battle for the state’s most precious commodity. Those pumps and the recipients of their water loom large in California’s future — and in the fight to save the Delta from declining health and death.

I’d love to pile on and paint Southern Californians as the baddies. It would, at least, be easy. Millions of southlanders get their water from Northern California. They have a history of plundering other’s wet stuff. And they haven’t exactly been wise with their own resources — why else would the Los Angeles River be more famous for a “Terminator 2” motorcycle chase than for carrying water?

In reality, if you’re looking to call out folks for being Delta water thieves, there are plenty of options. Valley farmers take their share from the pumps, as do millions of people in five Bay Area counties. Tracy even takes its cut.

The point is, the Delta is a shared resource, one that suffers from a demand larger than its supply. But that hasn’t stopped officials and activists from dreaming up ways to more efficiently exploit it.

One of the most popular, at least with water interests south and west, is a peripheral canal. It’s a centerpiece of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to ensure that a stream of water flows safe, supposedly, from the effects of a devastating earthquake or flood that could render normal Delta water undrinkable.

In an echo of 1982, when voters slapped down the original Peripheral Canal, the idea has been roundly criticized here as a grab of “our” resources by “outside” interests. San Joaquin County supervisors voted unanimously in opposition to the canal in late 2007, and editorial boards up and down the valley have taken the proposal to task.

Aside from the water bandit argument, those critics have identified several problems with the “isolated conveyance system.” For one, it would allow more saltwater to creep inland, leaving Delta water too salty for many crops. It would also slash a nasty swath through the valley, making God-knows-what happen to cut-off waterways and nearby farms and homes.

Few in this battle, though, have admitted the fact that can’t be avoided: The Delta is already pulled in so many directions that it is disintegrating before our eyes, and carving up more of its water for use isn’t the solution.

So I plead with elected officials to look elsewhere for answers to meet the state’s sure-to-grow water demand. That might mean more reservoirs, more groundwater storage, even desalinization plants to tap the endless potential that is the Pacific Ocean.

If they do that, I promise to practice more conservation — it’s a responsibility of everyone who relies on Delta water, even those who have a legitimate geographical claim to it.

Just as it would be shortsighted to look at a flood map and say levee stability is a problem only for our neighbors, it would also be a mistake to think reducing demand for Delta water is solely an issue for someone else.

• Visit Jon's blog for more Second Thoughts, or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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