Friday’s top of the scroll: Last-ditch gambit made for Delta fix; Capitol to mull deal before break

We’re on legislative watch today to see what happens with the water legislation package. (My money’s on a special session….) From the Contra Costa Times:

“Lawmakers who have had few successes this year are expected to decide before midnight Friday whether to go forward with a far-reaching and potentially very expensive plan to revamp the state’s water laws and the future of the Delta.

Two of the biggest pieces of the legislative puzzle were released early Thursday morning, and perhaps the biggest piece — how to pay for it — had not yet been made public late Thursday. If negotiations on financing fall through, it is possible that the bills might not reach the full Legislature.

Nevertheless, legislative leaders anxious to make progress on something important are hopeful of getting the package approved Friday, the last day of the 2009 session.

At the center of debate is a controversial canal that would take Sacramento River water around the Delta to as far away as Southern California — an aqueduct that many of the state’s biggest water agencies want and that some environmental groups say is worthy of consideration, but that many Delta representatives adamantly oppose.

The legislation sets conditions on the canal — namely that it not be approved until it is assured that adequate water flows remain for the Delta ecosystem, and that approval be granted if it meets the standards of the state’s Natural Community Conservation Planning law, which is meant to go further than endangered species laws and actually lead to full recovery of degraded ecosystems. …”

Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

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