Bad News When Skies Are Blue : WATER WATCH: Cloudbursts from heaven don’t make sound resource policy

With so many Southern California curbs ankle-deep in stormy water last weekend, fretting over a sixth year of drought did not come naturally. And the brief threat that the Rose Parade could be a washout made apprehension about dry times even less natural.

But soggy or not, worry we must.

One fear is that too much rain will wash away the sense of urgency about rewriting state and federal water laws to help shield California from droughts. Three interlocking pieces of legislation would do the trick, but they will need help from President Bush and Gov. Pete Wilson.

Time is running out. This rainy season’s statistics provide no cause to relax. Shasta Dam, heart of the federal Central Valley Project, is not as full as it was a year ago. Oroville, the key dam of the State Water Project, is a bit higher. Rainfall since last September is barely above half of the season’s normal for Sacramento. Los Angeles is doing better, at more than 80% of normal; Santa Ana is somewhat worse at about 40%. San Diego should get full supplies from the Colorado River next year.

In years past, fears of drought sparked flurries of dam-building and canal-digging. But with the federal government deep in debt and the state facing a second year of budget cuts, there is no cash even for small expansions of the capacity of either the state or federal water system.

Even with cash on hand, California would want to use water more efficiently. To start, it would treat water as a commodity on the free market, to be used sparingly and for ventures that made the most economic sense.

A bill by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) would rewrite rules for the federal project to permit sales of water now used for irrigation to industries, urban residents and others. Bradley’s bill is better than a rival bill by Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), which would let irrigation agencies and the secretary of Interior control the system rather than state laws, as Bradley proposes.

A bill by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) would suspend temporarily 40-year contracts to sell subsidized federal water to farmers to avoid committing the project’s water before the law is changed. Finally, a bill by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) would allow farmers to sell surplus water whether their irrigation agencies approved or not.

Only to the inveterate traditionalists of California water policy are these changes drastic, but those powers blocked reform last year and will try again. Californians must send messages to Washington and Sacramento that they want these changes and want them this year, no matter how soggy it gets, to safeguard their state’s future.