Panel urges speed on delta project

SACRAMENTO – A panel of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top advisers has recommended that California move swiftly on a massive construction project to pipe water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

In a report issued Friday, the Delta Vision Committee said California should begin building a canal to divert water from the Sacramento River as soon as 2011. It is one of the most disputed strategies included in a final report released by the governor's office after more than two years of hearings. The report mirrors an earlier draft released by Schwarzenegger's cabinet-level panel last month.

Advocates have said a canal would reroute water used by two-thirds of Californians away from the fragile delta, which is susceptible to earthquakes, levee breaks and flooding. A canal long has been opposed by Northern Californians wary of a water grab by the south. Environmentalists also fear water diversions could harm the delta's native fish. Voters in 1982 overwhelmingly rejected a similar concept, and some Democrats in the Legislature also oppose it.