We're writing an editorial for Sunday on the issue of water banking in Madera. It's a topic that's been in front of us before; two earlier efforts to start an underground storage site in the county failed, for a variety of reasons.

We like the idea of water banking as one solution to the Valley's crying need for new supplies. But it's a complex issue. Surface storage -- dams and reservoirs -- is preferred by many ag interests and their allies. It's opposed by many others, usually on the grounds of the high cost and the environmental impacts of manmade lakes. Some also believe that we haven't done nearly enough to conserve water, another way of increasing the supply.

Our own editorial board reflects all of those views, and more. Water is always a difficult question in California, and always has been. The hoary old quote attributed to Mark Twain still says it best, perhaps: In California, "whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over."