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Dan Walters: Land use is real issue in water wrangling

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 28, 2009 at 8:21 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

“They’re fighting over water in the Capitol, but lurking just below the surface is the real issue – how and where California develops land in the years and decades ahead.

In a semi-arid state such as California, whether land remains undeveloped, is cultivated for agriculture, or is covered with houses and shopping centers depends almost entirely on the availability of water.

That was true when Los Angeles’ civic and political gentry, eager for profitable land development in the San Fernando Valley, stealthily grabbed water from the Owens Valley a century ago. It’s even truer today.

It is, in fact, now a matter of state law. Eight years ago, then-Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation, backed by environmental groups, that requires any major land development to have an assured source of water. The legislation means that a developer not only needs a service agreement with a water agency, but must prove that the agency can, indeed, supply the water. …”

Read more from Dan Walters at the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

October 28, 2009 · Filed Under Water Legislation

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