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Evening update: As water deal takes shape, old problems remain

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 2, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Updates will continue throughout the evening…. From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times:

“The postmortem on California’s water policy of the past decade produced a consensus on two fatal conditions: the agency responsible for guiding the policy lacked authority to enact it and the state had no reliable funding to keep the policy alive.

Neither condition is fully addressed in a plan lawmakers were considering late Monday.

The new plan gives no enforcement power to the agency that would implement a Delta plan, and, like the ill-fated CalFed policy before it, the new plan depends on borrowing billions from the bond market to propel water reform.

Supporters of the deal in Sacramento say it is a historic breakthrough that would regulate groundwater in California for the first time, establish minimum flows in the Delta, require cities to use less water and put up $3 billion for new dams.

They say that even though a new Delta council would lack some powers, the legislation sets standards that amount to a big step in the right direction.

“I think it inches beyond CalFed,” said Phil Isenberg, a former Assembly leader who headed an independent task force evaluating the Delta. …”

Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

November 2, 2009 · Filed Under Water Legislation

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