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Barry Nelson on Bill Reilly’s call for leadership from Governor Schwarzenegger

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 31, 2009 at 7:21 am

From Barry Nelson, director of the Western Water Project, and the NRDC Switchboard Blog:

On Wednesday, Bill Reilly, the former Administrator of the EPA under President George H. W. Bush wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, urging the Governor to lead an effort to reform the agencies that manage (or don’t) the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

Mr. Reilly’s piece is remarkably well timed. For the past two months, bipartisan working groups composed of members of the California legislature have been involved in an intensive, quiet process of education and discussion on Bay-Delta issues. The Delta Vision Task Force, on which Mr. Reilly served as a member, seems to have been successful in shaping the legislature’s initial thinking. Agency reform – referred to as “governance” in water-speak — is a central part of these discussions.

In the next few weeks, legislators including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Senator Fran Pavley, Senator Lois Wolk and Senator Joe Simitian will take the results of those internal discussions and amend – probably dramatically – their current governance bills, which have already begun moving through the legislature. At the top of Mr. Reilly’s priority list is the creation of a new Council and a plan to oversee Delta management. The Delta is a critical, complex, changing, and vulnerable ecosystem – yet today there is no state plan and no single state agency charged with ensuring its future. The Delta Vision Task Force has several other critical governance recommendations, such as stronger rules governing land use, particularly on below-sea-level Delta islands.

Read more from Barry Nelson’s blog by clicking here.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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