A water deal at long last
Published 4:00 am, Friday, November 6, 2009
For decades, California's water wars have flared unabated - cities versus farms, north against south - while half measures left the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta drained and decimated. A solution involving all sides was only a dream.
After days of closed-door talks and an all-night session, the Legislature pulled off a remarkable achievement this week. With the governor's prodding, Sacramento has crafted a five-bill package that goes a long way toward ending the constant feuding, promising stable water flows, environmental safeguards, and billions in bond money.
"Save, share and store" is the slogan used by Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to describe the basics of the deal.
It's not perfect. Agriculture, by far the state's biggest water user, won't face the strict curbs on water use that urban areas will. An $11.1 billion bond measure is a goodies-laden shopping list with projects barely linked to the water crisis. Touted job-creating benefits in updating the state's public plumbing are years away. The fate of new Peripheral Canal - and its substantial cost - is put off for now.
But the real significance is plain. A dysfunctional state government took stock and banged out a comprehensive solution to a serious, complicated problem ignored for nearly a half century. A crisis moment - marked by a multi-year drought, declining salmon stocks, gridlocked interest groups and Sacramento leaders desperate to improve their ratings - produced the conditions for a breakthrough change.
The historic nature of the water deal produced a political love-in with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger inviting groggy legislative leaders from both parties to a friendly announcement session within hours of the all-nighter that sealed the deal. It was the fulfillment of the long-promised bipartisan law-making that the Capitol has only fitfully produced. Democrats, led by Senate leader Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and Republicans, headed by Senate leader Dave Cogdill and his Assembly counterpart Sam Blakeslee, got it done.
Water policy may be one of the most intricate issues around. "No elevator speech can explain it. It's way too complicated," said Marin assemblyman Jared Huffman, a Democrat and top negotiator for environmental forces.
But the solution draws in nearly all groups around the single biggest focus - the future of the sickly delta, where south-bound water supplies are drawn. The key feature of the deal now puts "the Delta's health and water stability on equal footing," said former legislator Phil Isenberg, who chaired the most recent of a string of study commissions.
The uber-water board created, the Delta Stewardship Council, will be pressured to build a new water-transport canal, observers acknowledge. But it can only happen if the network of waterways, sloughs and islands are returned to full health first. The council will preside where some 200 different agencies and districts have competing demands on the state's main fresh-water source.
It will take years to rebuild California's tattered, degraded water system. But a historic blueprint has finally been written, which will produce the biggest investment in the water infrastructure since the State Water Project was built a half century ago.
How it works
The five parts of the water package include:
-- Creation of an appointed, seven-member board to oversee water issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the state's prime source of farm and drinking water. Its biggest test: approving an updated peripheral canal that won't imperil wildlife and water flows in the delta.
-- A 20 percent cut in urban water use by 2020. Agriculture will face a "best practices" request to conserve. Key issues: setting a baseline that credits cities that already have strict water policies and making sure farms meet pledges to save.
-- Illegal water diversions. Environmentalists wanted heavy fines for siphoning water on the sly, an abuse that's barely checked. Farm interests won with a scaled-down program with 25 new inspectors and smaller fines.
-- Groundwater measurements. This state is among the last to track underground water - an asset in droughts, a potential storage spot, and a resource that's easily overused.
-- An $11.1 billion bond measure to face voters next November. The proposal scatters money around the state to build voter support for conservation, recycling, delta improvements, and cleanup of tainted water supples - all parts of the water puzzle. Conservatives complain it's too big. Some liberals say bond repayments may force cuts in social service programs in lean budget years.