California lawmakers pass water plan to improve supply

Nov. 5, 2009 | By Julie Small | KPCC
Download

After months of negotiation and a couple of all-night voting sessions, state lawmakers passed a cluster of bills Wednesday morning designed to improve California’s water supply. They’ve called the $11 billion package “historic” – and it is. The plan alters the way California manages water.

The plan attempts to tackle the river of problems in California’s water supply chain, starting with the state’s largest water source: the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Water from the Sacramento River and the Sierra snowmelt flows into the Delta. Huge pumps drive some of that water into the California aqueduct, which sends to the Central Valley and Southern California. Bay Area counties also divert water from Delta.

Numerous studies predict that if California keeps pumping out so much water, the Delta’s ecology will collapse. A federal judge has already restricted pumping in an effort to preserve a tiny fish species from extinction.

Republican Senator Dave Cogdill says the Delta, and California, can’t go on like this.

“We have a system that was built for 18 million people,” Cogdill said. “There are now 38 million of us, and as a result of some pretty extraordinary technology and conservation efforts, we’ve been able to get by. But we all know that we’re all living on borrowed time.”

Cogdill spent three years working on a water fix. The Central Valley Republican authored the plan’s finance package.

One part of that package creates a new seven-member Delta Stewardship Council. Its job is to keep water flowing to thirsty parts of the state while it protects the Sacramento Delta eco-system.

The Stewardship Council would have say-so over whether to build a “peripheral canal” that would divert water around the Delta for Central and Southern California.

Voters rejected that idea in 1982. State Senator Lois Wolk still doesn’t like it. The Delta-area Democrat describes a peripheral canal as “the equivalent of a 100-lane freeway, 48 miles long through prime agricultural land, including five two-mile long tunnels to suck in the Sacramento River.”

Wolk says the water legislation puts the “peripheral canal” idea back in play, but takes the decision about whether to build it out of the public’s hands. She voted against the water package and urged her colleagues to do the same.

“You believe, many of you, that there’s a magic bullet here," said Wolk. "Storage, tunnels, canals – but the real solution lies in taking less water from the Delta because there just isn’t enough.”

But Barry Nelson with the Natural Resources Defense Council told KPCC the water legislation just passed is consistent with that view.

“The future of water supply is not trying to take more water out of the Delta,” Nelson insisted. “We don’t think this bill authorizes that. We think this bill moves us in a direction of a sustainable Delta.”

The water plan also pays for water recycling and groundwater cleanup. It sets goals for cutting urban water use by 20 percent in a little more than a decade. Farmers will be encouraged, but not required, to use water conservation technology.

Also new: the state government will mandate groundwater monitoring. Right now, some counties, cities, and water agencies do and some don’t.

Barry Nelson with the Natural Resources Defense Council calls the water package a huge and positive change.

“I don’t think there’s a package of state water reform legislation that’s this comprehensive that we’ve seen in 25 years,” Nelson said.

Now it’s up to California voters to decide whether to pay for the plan. Be on the lookout for an $11 billion water bond proposal on next November’s general election ballot.

Join our community: Like KPCC on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get updates and talk about the day's news with other fans.

blog comments powered by Disqus