California: Tentative Cleanup Deal Is Reached Over Salt-Tainted Water.

The nation’s largest irrigation district agreed to clean up contaminated water in California’s Central Valley in a tentative deal announced Tuesday that would settle a decades-old dispute with the federal government. The district, Westlands Water District, would clean up water tainted by salt that has accumulated in soil from years of irrigation, its general manager, Thomas Birmingham, said. The Department of the Interior said the deal would save taxpayers $3.5 billion. Westlands did not say how much it would spend on the cleanup, but district officials said they agreed to fix the problem, whatever it takes. But critics say the district and the Department of the Interior secretly forged the agreement that wipes away large amounts of the district’s debt and potentially gives it greater access to scarce water supplies. Mr. Birmingham said negotiations had been done in private but had not been secret. The tentative deal requires final approval by Congress. The settlement also would relieve Westlands of $350 million owed to taxpayers for its part in building the Central Valley Project, which delivers water as far south as San Diego. It would grant Westlands an indefinite water contract, rather than one that has to be renewed every two years. The water district agreed to retire 16 percent of its 614,000 acres of farmland under the deal, which would limit the amount of federal water it could receive. In the last two years, it has received none.

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