This year, the annual bill governing national defense policy almost settled a three-decades-old conflict in California over toxic water draining from farm fields. Lawmakers finished resolving the differences between the House and Senate versions of the military bill, legislation that addresses troop numbers and overseas operations, on Wednesday. They considered — but ultimately dropped — a rider, the San Luis Unit Drainage Resolution Act, that would have confirmed a 2015 settlement transferring federal responsibility for dealing with contaminated water in California’s Westlands Water District to the district. Under the settlement, Westlands, the largest supplier of agricultural water in the U.S., would take on preventing or treating the contaminated runoff, as well as legal liability for lands damaged by excess drain water. In exchange, the federal government would forgive $375 million in debt. But the agreement, which requires congressional approval, is now in limbo — another example of the often-convoluted nature of Western water policy. In parts of the San Joaquin Valley, irrigation water, trapped by a layer of impermeable clay, accumulates in soil instead of draining deeper into the ground. That can smother crop roots; excess dissolved salts in the water can also damage plants. To remove the water, in 1968 the federal government began building a drain emptying into Kesterson Reservoir, about 50 miles east of San Jose. Then, in the early 1980s, hundreds of ducks and other waterfowl died at Kesterson; many bird embryos showed severe abnormalities, including missing eyes and beaks. The culprit was selenium — a naturally occurring mineral that became concentrated to lethal levels through evaporation on fields, then washed into the reservoir with the farm runoff...more
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