This just in from Senator Aanestad: Robbing Peter’s water to fill Paul’s pool

From the Office of Senator Sam Aaenestad:

“SACRAMENTO: Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) says there are serious problems with the Conference Committee Report that was issued by the Legislative Conference Committee on Water late last night. Senator Aanestad, who served on the committee, says the report is not only missing key Republican proposals for new water storage and a plan to transport additional supplies to water users – the tough conservation proposals spelled out in the report do not apply to all cities in California.

The conservation measures are spelled out in AB 49 – one of five measures that are included in the final Conference Committee Report. The measure, which mandates a 20% cut in water usage, applies to hundreds of water agencies except those that serve San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach. According to a Placer County Water Agency analysis of AB 49, these three cities have a special exemption – and will only be required to implement conservation measures that cut water usage by a modest 5% by 2020.

“This Conference Committee Report tells every water user in California they will face stiff penalties if they don’t adopt stringent water conservation measures, unless, that is, you live in certain politically favored areas of the state,” said Senator Aanestad. “It’s the kind of language that reinforces the public perception that this Legislature is dysfunctional.”

The analysis of AB 49 finds that with three of California’s top ten cities exempted from the 20% conservation mandate – about 15% of the state’s population would not be required to adopt the same conservation measures mandated across the rest of the state. Additionally, the analysis is focused on just the top ten cities in California – which means there might be other, largely coastal, highly urbanized areas, which are also exempted from the conservation mandate.

“This highly flawed bill is asking Californians, including my Northern California district, to conserve water so that people in Los Angeles and San Francisco can fill their swimming pools or water their golf courses,” said Senator Aanestad. “This isn’t a solution to our water crisis. The authors of AB 49, who conveniently represent Los Angeles and the Bay Area, not only want more of Northern California’s water, they want to impose draconian conservation measures that they would be exempted from. What part of this sounds fishy?”

Senator Aanestad did not sign the Conference Committee Report because it does not contain new storage projects for California, including Sites Reservoir in Colusa County. Both sides in water negotiations, however, continue to meet in hopes of striking an agreement. The State Legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year tomorrow.

“The failure to include new water storage in any water proposal is a non-starter,” said Senator Aanestad. “And to establish arbitrary mandates that some are forced to follow while some are not is just bad public policy.””

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