Thomas W. Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, is responding to the Nov. 6 editorial "Bay Delta plan on a perilous path," which stated: "Paid for and driven by water contractors, this 'conservation plan' has been disproportionately focused on construction of a canal or tunnel that would provide water exporters with extra supplies."

The most troubling aspect of The Bee's editorial is its suggestion that the state and local agencies that have been working together for more than five years to resolve California's water crisis are trying to mislead the public.

Let's be clear on the points of concern to The Bee.

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan, or BDCP, was initiated to solve a water supply problem. Addressing the ecosystem of the Delta is an essential part of that solution. BDCP, however, is not just another interesting study of the environmental needs of the Delta.

The public agencies that depend on this water system are not trying to take more water out of the Delta. We are trying to secure the same amount of water as we used to have and that has been promised to us under law.

If we do not build a new conveyance facility, the supply problem will not be solved and there will be no money to repair the Delta either.

There is nothing extraordinary about the BDCP process that you criticize. This is the procedure laid out in federal law and promoted by the Legislature's water bills in 2009. The principle that the beneficiaries should pay for environmental studies has applied to development projects large and small for decades.

In this case, the public water agencies that serve 25 million Californians are paying for the studies necessary to permit this project to move forward. What is extraordinary about BDCP is the amount of money committed to it, the years invested in its development, the complexity of the issues it addresses and the breadth of public needs it would serve.

The in-Delta interests and their allies in Congress that today oppose BDCP have supported decades of mismanagement that have brought the Delta environment to its present degraded condition. BDCP represents an opportunity to reverse that decline, to restore our public water supplies and to do something serious about actually restoring the Delta's natural resources.

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Thomas W. Birmingham is general manager of the Westlands Water District.

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