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Coverage from around the state on yesterday’s water hearings

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 5, 2007 at 8:32 am

Water hearings and press conferences were on tap yesterday, generating a flood of news this morning. Here are some highlights from articles around the state:

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Racing an approaching deadline, state lawmakers on Thursday searched for compromise over plans to ask voters for billions of dollars in fixes to California’s water system. Lawmakers and administration officials held dueling news conferences as a special legislative committee began hearings into potential solutions, including new dams, canals and underground water storage.

“Our water system is not as reliable as it used to be, and it is being strained at the seams to meet the needs of this state,” Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said during a news conference attended by Central Valley water, business, labor and civic leaders.

The push for a long-term solution to California’s water needs is part of the special legislative session called last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also is trying to broker a health care reform deal.

There is a lot different between the two competing proposals. Schwarzenegger’s $9 billion proposal includes funding to build two new dams and expand an existing reservoir; Perata’s proposal would cost $5 billion and would provide funds for regional projects, which could include a dam if there was enough regional interest for one. “The real issue is … who pays and how much,” [Assemblyman John] Laird said in this article.

To read the full text of the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage, click here.

Indeed, money does seem to be a sticking point, and there certainly isn’t any shortage of problems related to water, as noted in this article from the Salinas Californian:

Speakers at a series of events questioned the fairness of state-financed reservoirs to Monterey County-area residents who have funded their own projects, predicted enduring poverty for the San Joaquin Valley without the Temperance Flat dam and acknowledged the state’s far-flung water problems such as the Salton Sea.

“There is no one single water problem in California,” emphasized Phil Isenberg, a former legislator who now chairs an advisory panel appointed by the governor to recommend how to fix the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta.

Assemblyman John Laird also added this about the $9 billion bond proposal:

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, noted that the annual debt payment on the bond proposal with the new dams is about the same as the final amount cut in state spending to end the budget crisis this summer, a step that reduced Social Security payments. “So I have to go back to the Social Security recipients in my district and say, ‘You paid 100 percent of the cost of your water in your dams,’” he said. “Others want you to pay 50 percent of the cost of other peoples’ (new) dams for their water, and the price is you have to give up your Social Security increase.”

The governor is proposing that the state pay up to half the cost of the proposed new dams. “There is a matter of equity here,” Laird added. “The question is what’s fair.”

To read the full text of this story from the Salinas Californian, click here.

From the Sacramento Bee:

The state’s vexing water issues were laid before lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing. Jay Lund, a water expert and professor at UC Davis, presented a list of 11 major water problems in the state. The list touched most every region, from the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — the state’s water hub — to the Tulare Lake basin, a major source of irrigation water that is suffering from salt intrusion. “We have a lot of water problems,” Lund said.

But the search for solutions has eluded lawmakers for years and seems to always come down to a debate over dams.

At the hearing, Democrats seized on testimony showing that new conservation efforts could save as much as 3.1 million acre-feet of water a year, triple the amount provided by building new dams. They also were pleased by data showing the immense potential for groundwater storage systems.

But Republicans countered that dams are needed to capture the large amounts of water needed to refresh groundwater banks. “A recharge system is a reservoir,” said Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Oroville.

To read the full text of the story from the Sacramento Bee, click here.

Some want more focus on the Delta, and Metropolitan Water District is not necessarily supportive of new dams, as noted in this article from the Ventura County Star:

Earlier this week, Assembly Republicans said they were drawing “a line in the sand” by vowing to oppose any proposal that did not include surface-water storage. “If we don’t have surface storage, we don’t have a deal,” said Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines of Clovis.

Democrats responded Thursday by saying there is “no magic bullet” that will fix statewide water problems. “The delta is in crisis, and it is that crisis that has brought us to the special session,” said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, chairwoman of the special water committee. “It’s not clear at all that a particular dam at a particular place anywhere in the state would resolve that problem.”

Southern California’s large water agencies have not been advocating the dams proposed by Schwarzenegger, and instead have placed top priority on preserving the delta as a reliable water source into the future.

The delta, a massive web of waterways that stretches from the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to the San Francisco Bay, supplies water to 25 million Californians from San Francisco to San Diego.

To read the full text of the article from the Ventura County Star, click here.

Will the special session yield any results? Hank Shaw of Stockton’s RecordNet.com provides us with a list of issues:

… in interviews with staffers, lawmakers and lobbyists involved in the talks, the overriding sense is that the political will to seal a deal is shaky at best. And partisanship is only a piece of the puzzle:

» Southern Californians are wondering why more than half of the $9 billion would go for dams that would not help their water problems — especially since they would pay more than half the cost.

» Valley farmers worried over recent court decisions want more water, but their critics note that they already pay the lowest cost for irrigated water in the nation and point to state estimates that agricultural water needs will decline drastically over the next 20 years as the industry shifts to drought-tolerant crops and more efficient irrigation.

» Many Valley cities do not conserve water the way those in Southern California do, although Stockton is an exception. Some are resistant to imposing strict water conservation measures.

» Fiscal hawks are leery of the idea of borrowing another $9 billion, when $10 billion in previously approved water bond money has not yet been spent. Adding $9 billion to the state’s credit card will add about $600 million in annual payments.

» Delta farmers fear that any new bond could pave the way to build a peripheral canal that bypasses water from the Sacramento River around the estuary into the giant pumps near Tracy. They say this could turn the Delta into a backwater.

To read the full text of Hank Shaw’s article from Stockton’s RecordNet.com, click here.

From the Chico Enterprise-Record, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa says there’s still a lot of work to be done:

Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, said there is still a lot of work to be done to convince the Legislature that an upcoming bond measure for the state ballot in February needs to include billions of dollars for construction of new water surface storage.

LaMalfa and Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico, attended a special committee of the legislature Thursday in Sacramento.

No vote was taken Thursday, LaMalfa said, but it was clear from the discussion that more persuading is needed, he said. “It will take more doing,” he said.

To read the full text of this article from the Chico Enterprise Record, click here.

October 5, 2007 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Water Legislation

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