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Why the Accord Worked

by Betsy Rieke, Asst. Secretary for Water and Science U.S. Dept of Interior

"Several key ingredients made the Bay-Delta negotiations succeed. First, we walked into a situation where everyone - urban users, business, even the agricultural community - was so tired of being unable to solve the problem they were ready to move. Second, we benefited from the leadership of several relative newcomers to the Bay-Delta water wars. People like the [San Luis-Delta Mendota Water Authority's] Dan Nelson, [EPA's] Felicia Marcus and I didn't bring along much baggage vis-a-vis the others at the negotiating table. Third, we managed to meet Governor Wilson's demand that we, the federal government, get it together. We formed ClubFed, an association of EPA, Interior and Commerce agencies all with one form of mandate or another to protect the habitat and wildlife of the Bay-Delta. ClubFed enabled the federal agencies to speak as a chorus and to be accountable as a group.

"Another ingredient of success was the region's unusually sophisticated environmental community and unusually engaged business community. The latter helped us make the Bay-Delta a non-issue in the 1994 election. With a Democratic president and a Republican governor in California, the Bay-Delta could have become a bitter partisan issue. But the business community was able to hold the feet of both the federal and the state government to the fire and demand a solution by the end of the year. When you get a letter signed by the CEOs of Bank of America, Southern California Edison, PG&E and the like, you have to wake up and pay attention.

"Another milestone was when the urban water users put their own proposal on the table - the first time any user group had actually agreed to give up a specified amount of water to the Bay-Delta environment. The urbans then worked to build consensus with the agricultural community. The enviros, in turn, were sophisticated enough to recognize the importance of compromise. They helped our scientists and policymakers see a way to a compromise agreement with the urban/ag coalition. Another major milestone was the signing of the state/federal framework agreement in the summer of 1994, which emphasized the federal commitment to having the state adopt its own standards.

"This was probably one of the oldest and most intractable of the Western water wars. Without the leverage of the Endangered Species Act, and without all the negotiators really trying to understand what it was the other side saw as a conflict, it might never have been resolved."

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