Editorial: Two big water deals now gain traction

Will Barack Obama bring peace to Western rivers?

No, we are not that audacious. Nor do we presume the president-elect is spending much time getting briefed on Western water politics.

But it's hard not to notice that, just two weeks after the election, negotiators have announced breakthroughs on once-stalled talks to restore two California rivers.

On Thursday, federal officials, environmentalists, Indian tribes and others announced agreement with a utility, PacifiCorp, to remove four dams that block the Klamath River. This pact could potentially end years of litigation and fighting over the Klamath, while restoring salmon to a river that once was a major fish factory.

Two days earlier, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced a final deal among parties that have been trying to implement a restoration settlement for the San Joaquin River.

Feinstein hopes to get the pact approved by Congress in the lame duck session, capping 18 years of litigation that has pitted environmentalists against irrigators that get their water from Friant Reservoir.

The two deals have their differences. The San Joaquin pact is further along and would produce results more quickly. If approved by Congress, it would restore water to the river in 2009 and possibly return some salmon by 2012.

The Klamath deal, by contrast, is more of a framework than a binding agreement. It has a goal of starting to remove the dams by 2020. Although some have criticized this 12-year lag, negotiators say it will give PacifiCorp time to replace power lost by the dismantling of hydroelectric dams.

The common thread between these deals? The Bush administration supported both. And both included parties that, after years of hard bargaining, saw more advantage in cutting a deal than awaiting the uncertainties of a new president and Congress.

So, for better or worse, Obama's election is already shaking up the inertia of Western water. More changes are sure to flow in the years ahead.