16 days ago
SACRAMENTO, CA - California lawmakers passed an $11 billion overhaul of the state's water system Wednesday, including a restoration of the crucial Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The state Assembly passed the comprehensive package of water bills and the bond measure before dawn on Wednesday. The Senate, which earlier passed a less costly package, later approved the final version.
The plan includes policies that improve water conservation, groundwater monitoring, water rights and governance as well as a water infrastructure bond to be placed on next year's ballot.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the five-bill package, which he called a wise investment in the state's future.
"This is without any doubt the most comprehensive water infrastructure package that has passed here," Schwarzenegger said. "Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California...This comprehensive water package is an historic achievement."
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said California now has the most significant water reforms in decades.
"The package includes conservation and storage, groundwater protection, water rights protection, and Delta protection and represents the most significant water infrastructure and policy advances since the State Water Project in the 1960s," Bass said.
"This is a responsible plan," Bass said. "No one is getting 100 percent of what they want. Everyone who gets something has to give something, too. It is the only way to balance the many different individual interests for the overall greater good of having a safe and stable water supply for the entire State of California."
Last month, the governor called for a special session to meet and deal with California's water crisis, urging the passage of legislation on the many issues facing the state's water system.
Lawmakers have wrangled for years over how to upgrade the water system. The problems became more acute this year when farmers faced a third dry year with less snowfall and new pumping restrictions to protect a delta fish.
Democrats and Republicans spent months hashing out a strategy intended to change how water is used in California and how to better manage the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The water plan includes creation of a seven-member governing council to oversee the delta that funnels fresh water from Northern to Southern California, where most of the state's population lives.
But many Delta farmers distrust the study the council is expected to do on "a conveyance" that transports water. They believe the "conveyance" in the plan is really a peripheral canal.
"Part of my ranch is directly in the bull's eye of one of the proposed canal alignments," said Jeff Merwin. He fears the canal will ruin his family's farm near Clarksburg.
One of the proposed routes for the canal would run along the deep-water shipping channel in Yolo County and right through Merwin's land where he grows, safflower, wheat, alfalfa and dichondra ground cover.
"People are already traipsing through here and drawing up maps," Merwin said. "And other people who have never set foot on my ranch are trying to carve it up."
Merwin said he understands the canal could be 1,000 feet wide. He said, "It will just make it that much more difficult to locally grow food or that products that provide for food."
Delta farmers point out they wouldn't get to use any of the water in the canal.
They also don't think it will help the Delta. "It's really difficult for me to see how removing water before it gets to the Delta is going to benefit the Delta," Merwin said.
He hopes farmers who will be impacted will get to help plan and develop the canal. "I don't think we can stop it," Merwin said. "But I really hope we can help steer it in a direction that's positive for everyone."
The maze of earthen levees that protect the Delta is susceptible to earthquakes that could halt pumping for months.
Federal courts and agencies have ordered reductions in pumping to protect he delta's collapsing ecosystem.
Legislators want to require California cities to use 20 percent less water by 2020, although large urban areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco would not have to meet such a high threshold because per-capita water use is lower than other parts of the state.
News10/KXTV/The Associated Press
