Independently, neither water users nor environmental groups have the full solution to meeting the water demands of a thirsty and growing California, a governor-appointed panel concluded Friday. But together they might.

The state's Delta Vision Task Force ended nearly two years of study Friday by declaring that, with a finite supply of water at its disposal, California must do more of everything to meet its water needs.

That includes building some type of canal to divert fresh water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the task force concluded – this state's most controversial water proposal for two generations.

It also includes more dams, aggressive statewide conservation and unflinching enforcement of existing water laws to protect the environment.

The plan's central theme is that water supply and a healthy environment should be co-equal goals.

"We've got to end this view that water users can rub environmentalists into the ground or vice versa," said Phil Isenberg, chairman of the task force and one-time opponent of a canal. "I used to say the Delta would be better off if nothing happened. Well, that's not true."

At the core of the panel's work is the Delta itself, the largest estuary on the West Coast and hub of the state water system.

Delta water serves 23 million Californians from Silicon Valley to San Diego, a supply threatened by weak levees on Delta islands.

Floods, a rise in sea level, earthquakes – or some combination of the three – are likely to contaminate Delta waters in the future, triggering a statewide water, and economic, crisis.

The task force favors a "dual conveyance" strategy to protect that water supply. This includes building a new canal around the Delta's perimeter and bolstering existing channels through its center.

The system could allow more water to be diverted whenever there is a surplus. In lean years, more storage – both in dams and below ground – would mean less diversion, which would be better for the environment.

Strict new diversion rules and 100,000 acres of restoration projects would help restore threatened fish species.

Isenberg, former mayor of Sacramento and state legislator, was appointed along with six others by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nearly two years ago to identify solutions for the Delta and the state's water supply.

Their work has been praised by both water users and environmentalists as the most independent and complete look at the Delta's problems.

That doesn't mean both sides like everything about it.

Water agencies object to a proposal for a new regional governance system to police water diversions and land use. It would consolidate the more than 200 government agencies that now loosely regulate the 740,000-acre Delta.

"It doesn't seem like what we need is a new legal structure," said Laura King-Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors. "We need the existing legal structure to come to grips with what the ecosystem is going to look like once we separate water (delivery) from the ecosystem."

Environmental groups are noncommittal about a canal and new dams.

"The big issue in the Delta is how you operate the thing," Barry Nelson, senior policy advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said of the canal. "We'll support good projects, we'll oppose bad projects. Basically, the devil is in the details."

The task force included Southern California business leaders as well as green-leaning politicians from the north.

It is proposing new Delta levee safety standards that vary with land use, new state parks and a federal historic designation to boost tourism and preservation efforts.

The task force gathered evidence that conservation, whether on farms or in cities, has not reduced statewide water demand. It recommends aggressive new water-saving targets statewide, including loss of water rights for those who waste or misuse water.

None of the task force goals can be achieved without action by Schwarzenegger and the Legislature. Many proposals require new laws to be enacted – in some cases as soon as eight months from now.

A committee of Schwarzenegger's Cabinet leaders is charged with reviewing the proposals in December and making recommendations to the Legislature.

"Is the administration going to embrace this? Will the Legislature tackle some of the hard issues?" asked Gary Bobker, program director at the Bay Institute. "I don't know if the urgency is there, given all the other things going on."

But levee expert Raymond Seed, a task force member and UC Berkeley engineering professor, hopes public pressure forces politicians to act.

Water users, he said, now know they can't get reliable supplies without a healthy environment. And environmentalists realize they can't repair habitat without financial help from the water users.

"What we have now is a historic and broadly based consensus," Seed said. "And that's too precious to let slip."

The full report is online at www.deltavision.ca.gov.

Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264.