Features

SACRAMENTO — Farmers, conservationists, water districts and some legislators fear a state proposal to take over hydroelectric plants could endanger California’s water supply. 

The Assembly is considering a plan to take over hydroelectric plants owned by Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison in return for helping the utilities with their overwhelming debt. But those who depend on that water for irrigation fear the state might run reservoirs dry as it struggles to produce enough electricity. 

“We’re an irrigation district first and a power district second,” said Bill Carlisle, general manager of both the Southern San Joaquin Municipal Utility District and the Friant  

Power Authority. 

Carlisle, who testified at an Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee hearing Wednesday, worries that the state’s push for electricity might reverse those priorities even in dry years. 

“We’re the good guys, not the bad guys, but we’re getting sucked into the black hole of the state owning everything,” Carlisle said. 

Committee Chairman Dean Florez shares that concern. 

“We’re fixing a short-term problem and maybe creating a long-term problem in terms of water reliability,” said Florez, D-Shafter. 

The alternative is far worse in terms of darkened homes and bankrupt utilities, said Assemblyman Fred Keeley, a Boulder Creek Democratic sponsoring the hydroelectric proposal. 

The proposal is one of many lawmakers are considering as they try to find a way to ease California’s deregulation-induced electricity crisis, which plunged the northern two-thirds of the state into scattered outages last week and has left SoCal Edison and PG&E on the verge of bankruptcy. 

Assembly leaders want the utilities to agree to give the state their hydro plants, valued at $4 billion to $7 billion, in return for the state’s help in buying electricity and paying off some of their $12 billion debt. 

The hydro plants’ estimated $1.25 billion annual revenues would be enough to pay off long-term bonds the state would use to buy more electricity at wholesale prices, said Guy Phillips, Keeley’s water consultant. 

The state would make no changes to the hydro plants’ operation, Phillips said, and would reimburse local governments for lost property taxes under the plan. 

Senate leaders want the state to take the utilities’ power transmission lines instead of their hydro plants. But Phillips argued those produce no revenue and in fact would cost billions to improve. 

Meanwhile, small electricity producers like the Friant Power Authority are hurting from the utilities’ hard times. 

The authority produces a mere 25 megawatts of electricity for PG&E from its hydroelectric generators in the San Joaquin River, enough for about 25,000 homes. But it is owed about $180,000 by PG&E with no payment in sight. 

“We’re just a little guy, but we’re getting squashed in the process,” Carlisle said.