On Wednesday, Bill Reilly, the former Administrator of the EPA under President George H. W. Bush wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, urging the Governor to lead an effort to reform the agencies that manage (or don't) the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

Mr. Reilly's piece is remarkably well timed.  For the past two months, bipartisan working groups composed of members of the California legislature have been involved in an intensive, quiet process of education and discussion on Bay-Delta issues.  The Delta Vision Task Force, on which Mr. Reilly served as a member, seems to have been successful in shaping the legislature's initial thinking.  Agency reform - referred to as "governance" in water-speak -- is a central part of these discussions. 

In the next few weeks, legislators including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Senator Fran Pavley, Senator Lois Wolk and Senator Joe Simitian will take the results of those internal discussions and amend - probably dramatically - their current governance bills, which have already begun moving through the legislature.  At the top of Mr. Reilly's priority list is the creation of a new Council and a plan to oversee Delta management.  The Delta is a critical, complex, changing, and vulnerable ecosystem - yet today there is no state plan and no single state agency charged with ensuring its future.  The Delta Vision Task Force has several other critical governance recommendations, such as stronger rules governing land use, particularly on below-sea-level Delta islands.  

The State Administration is also quietly working on governance reform ideas.  In the coming month or so, we should see signs that will reveal if this issue will emerge as a real priority for the Governor. 

A decade ago, a similar discussion of Delta governance issues led to the creation of a toothless Bay-Delta Authority.  It still exists - but only on paper.  This time, the legislature should create a body with real power to address key issues in the Delta, such as the growing flood risks to Delta infrastructure and its 400,000 residents, the need to improve the management of the state and federal Delta water projects, the need to restore habitat and to ensure that the Delta has enough water to restore its health, as well as that of the state's imperiled salmon fishery. 

OK, I'll admit it.  It's hard to make agency reform a riveting public debate.  This is not "must see TV."  It's complex, wonky, and easy to dismiss as rearranging deck chairs on a sinking HMS Delta Titanic.  But Mr. Reilly is right.  It's hard to imagine how California can solve the complex problems facing the Delta in the 21st century without changing the agencies that were largely conceived to meet the water challenges that faced us in the middle of the last century. 

Our thanks to Bill Reilly and the Delta Vision Task Force.  (The members of the Task Force have recently formed a foundation to encourage the implementation of their strategic plan.)  And hey, if you've got more ideas about how to make governance reform sexy, I'm all ears.