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Conservation Groups Blast Schwarzenegger/Feinstein Water Bond
Proposal
by Dan Bacher, editor
of the Fish Sniffer
July 29, 2008. As
Governor Schwarzenegger threatens to cut the salaries of 200,000 state
workers to the $6.55 federal minimum wage to supposedly ease the
state’s projected budget deficit of $17.2 billion,
Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein are campaigning for a
enormously costly and destructive "compromise" $9.3 billion
water bond proposal that includes more dams and a peripheral canal.
Fishing and
environmental groups strongly criticized the proposal for furthering
imperiling already collapsing Central Valley and Delta fisheries while
further indebting California taxpayers, while Democratic Legislators
urged the Governor to spend $800,000,000 already allocated before
talking about another water bond.
The latest proposal
follows the Governor’s signing of an executive order in June declaring
a statewide drought that directed state agencies and departments to
“take immediate action” to address the drought conditions and water
delivery reductions that exist in California. Schwarzenegger also
proclaimed a state of emergency in nine Central Valley counties to
address urgent water needs: Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced,
Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern.
This water bond
proposal calls for "increased water storage to ensure our water
supply is more reliable year-to-year and we’re able to capture excess
water in wet years to use in dry years" and "improved water
conveyance to reduce water shortages" - a euphemism for the
peripheral canal.
"The goal of this
plan is to break the long-standing stalemate over water,” Senator
Feinstein gushed, evoking the failed "can't we all come
together" pseudo-consensus language that her and Schwarzenegger
revel in. “California is facing an unprecedented water crisis. The
combination of drought, court ordered water restrictions, global
warming, and an increasing population has placed a major strain on the
existing infrastructure.
She continued, “We
need to prepare now for the future. This language is comprehensive,
balanced and could help increase water supplies to meet the needs of the
environment, our cities, and agriculture. I hope that all sides can come
together around a consensus plan that can be approved this November.”
Governor Schwarzenegger
echoed, “There is an urgent need for comprehensive water reform, and
this bipartisan plan is offered as a potential compromise that puts us
on the path toward restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, expanding
water supplies and promoting conversation efforts that will ensure a
clean, reliable water supply for California,”
In a joint statement,
the bipartisan duo claimed that the water bond would somehow restore
collapsing Central Valley salmon and Delta fish species, although not
specifying how this would be done with more dams and an
“improved conveyance.”
The statement
continues, “In two of the past three years, our once thriving Pacific
salmon fisheries have been simply shut down as former salmon strongholds
throughout the state have become dangerously imperiled. The populations
of Delta smelt and other native Delta fish have collapsed to tiny
fractions of their former levels. Threats from aquatic invasive species,
toxic discharges and pesticides abound. Restoring our fisheries
and our riparian ecosystems in the face of all these challenges will
require bold action.”
Fishing groups said
this proposal does nothing to further real water conservation or
ecological preservation, but is just another version of the Governor and
Feinstein's earlier, outdated proposals to bail out corporate
agribusiness, construct new dams and build the canal.
“We already have $6
billion in bond money that the state hasn’t spent yet,” said Bill
Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance. “This is just the latest scheme to raid the people’s
pocketbooks to further subsidize already subsidized water
contractors.”
He criticized the
proposal for including plans to build Sites Reservoir on the west side
of the Sacramento Valley and Temperance Flat Reservoir on the San
Joaquin River east of Fresno. “The Governor and Feinstein are trying
to force through the dams even though they will have little yield in
water,” said Jennings. “Also, the Sites Reservoir would store water
in mercury laden sediments.”
The problem with
constructing new dams or “improving conveyance” is that California
water is already grossly overallocated. California has 77 million acre
feet in annual runoff in a state with a water budget of 85 million acre
feet – and where over half a billion acre feet is authorized for
use, according to Jennings.
Jennings said that
Feinstein, Schwarzenegger and other policy makers “have to realize
that we live in an arid state and the water bond is predicated on
an abundance of water that doesn’t’ exist.”
In spite of
Schwarzenegger’s and Feinstein’s claims that the bond will somehow
restore the Delta ecosystem, Jennings noted that it will only “further
exacerbate the demise of Central Valley fisheries.”
Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign coordinator of Restore the Delta, was also
very displeased with the Governor’s bond proposal.
“As was the case in
2007, Governor Schwarzenegger made what appears on the surface to be
another move to short-circuit his own mandated Delta planning process,
Delta Vision, by calling for a bipartisan $9.3 billion water bond,”
she said. “The joint statement sent out by the Governor and Senator
Diane Feinstein calls for (in nebulous language) "improved
conveyance" that will take the pressure of the Delta.
“Restore the Delta
staff is very suspicious of the lack of details regarding Delta
conveyance included in their joint statement as well as the timing of
this proposed bond,” she stated. “Could it be that this initial bond
is somehow supposed to finance the proposed Delta Vision Strategic Draft
Plan? While the $3 billion figure for improved state water conveyance
would not cover the entire cost of a new through Delta pipeline, could
money for a new facility be forthcoming from other sources?
She also questioned why
the Governor is calling for this new bond when California has an $18
billion deficit and is in its third week of operating without a
state budget.
The Planning and
Conservation League (PCL) criticized the bond for including provisions
that would limit future legislative oversight for water storage projects
and projects affecting the Bay Delta, including the unprecedented
continuous appropriation of $3 billion for water storage projects.
"If approved, the water bond would bypass the legislature and grant
allocation authority to the defunct California Water Commission (which
is a commission entirely appointed by the Governor and which currently
has no appointed members)," said Mindy McIntire, PCL's Water
Program Manager.
"The proposal also
includes confusing language that seems to limit the Legislature's
ability to engage in a solution to fix the Delta by requiring a
two-thirds vote of the Legislature to change or amend any portion of the
proposal's directives regarding the Delta," she added.
"New dams and the
Peripheral Canal truly represent a 19th century solution to a 21st
century problem," summed up Steve Evans in a letter to Feinstein
and Schwarzenegger. "We respectfully urge you to reconsider your
support for this budget-busting and environmentally destructive bond
measure."
Senate President pro
Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) also criticized the Governor’s proposed
$9.3 billion water bond measure, saying the best way for California to
boost water supply quickly is to put the $9 billion in bond money
approved by voters in 2006 to work. However, fishing and
environmental groups were alarmed by his increasing willingness to
sponsor a compromise water bond with Schwarzenegger and Feinstein,
drawing fears that the final version could include a peripheral canal
and dams.
“This latest bond
proposal shares many similarities to one I put up for a vote last
September, before the state encountered its current fiscal crisis,” he
concluded. “ I am open to doing a water bond."
Perata said the state
should spend the bond money voters approved in 2006 - and then pass a
“responsible budget” that can pay for the debt service on a new
bond. “Once we do that, we’ll sit down with the Governor and
Republicans to draft a bond measure to secure the state’s long-term
water supply,” he explained.
On July 14, Perata and
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) further indicated their
willingness to come up with a compromise bond when they announced that
they would push legislation to fund “water storage, reliability and
conservation efforts” with already approved bond money.
"It's imperative
that we get to work immediately improving water conservation, water
storage and water management -- and that's exactly what these two bills
do," Bass said. "This package sets a realistic target for
boosting water conservation and uses already approved bond money to make
big improvements in California's water system."
“Just like
California’s transportation infrastructure, our water system must be
overhauled and upgraded to meet the growing demands of the 21st
century,” Perata said. “These bills take an important first step by
quickly getting more than $800 million out the door and making
conservation a top priority.”
The two bills are:
• SB 1XX (Second
Extraordinary Session), by Perata. This bill appropriates $812.5 million
in Proposition 84 and Proposition 1-E dollars already approved by the
voters in 2006. These funds are desperately needed by water agencies to
address the current water drought and fire crisis and to provide
immediate investments in water supply reliability.
• AB 2175, by
Assemblyman John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). This bill establishes a 20
percent water conservation target for most urban water agencies by the
year 2020. It essentially says that within 12 years, the state
will meet one-fifth of its water needs through more efficient use of the
water we have.
“Perata's now talking
compromise with the governor,” contended Jerry Neuburger, CSPA
webmaster. “Is the legislature sailing us down the peripheral
canal?"
Everybody who cares
about the future of the California Delta, West Coast fisheries and
California water supplies should oppose Schwarzenegger and Feinstein’s
proposal – and urge Bass and Perata to not include dams and a
peripheral canal in any final “compromise” bond proposal.
Write, call or visit
your Legislators today and phone or write Governor and Dianne Feinstein
about your strong opposition to their plan that will result only in the
further decline of imperiled chinook salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt,
striped bass, green sturgeon and other fish populations. I strongly urge you to
sign on to the letter authored by Steve Evans of Friends of the River
opposing the proposal
For more information on
the legislation, go to www.calsport.org,
www.restorethedelta.org and www.friendsoftheriver.org.