The legislature returned this week from their August break by taking up what is undoubtedly the most contentious topic this side of the budget, and perhaps even including the budget, water and what to do about the Delta.
Facing the legislature are five bills, packaged together to address critical issues of facing California Water and the Delta. Tuesday was largely an informational that saw the issues laid forth.
Senator Joe Simitian, a Democrat, argued that the status quo ought to be unacceptable to all elected officials and that the five bill package needs to be seen as a package. The key issue for him was finding a way to move water reliably and cleanly.
Said the Senator:
"When I looked into the situation 3 1/2 years ago I had the same concerns that I think all of you have which is that scientists tell us that there’s a 2/3 chance that the whole system is going to collapse in the next 50 years and that 24-million Californians will be left without water and that’s a 40-billion-dollar economic consequence. I stepped into the fray because the delta, which is the most significant estuary in the western coast, was going to hell in a hand basket and that benign neglect wasn’t serving the delta well over the previous quarter century."
For the Senator, the issue is not one of conveyance, but a matter of figuring out how to fix the delta and our water system. Many, including spokespeople for the Governor argued that the status quo was not acceptable. Lester Snow, Director of Water Resources, argued, "Anyone who thinks the status quo is working doesn't understand what's going on."
He went on to argue that the current bills appear to establish additional obstacles. They delay but do not expedite solutions. Many of them give little attention to water supply as opposed to habitat restoration.
Senator Simitian forcefully argued against the status quo, and argued that conveyance, which in his argument has not been proposed, is not necessarily the end of the world.
"I think that if we reject the package of bills before us today is a vote for the status quo. And the status quo means mass extinction of native species. The status quo means eventual levee collapse and disruption of water supplies to 24 million Californians. The status quo will result in destruction of much of California’s agricultural sector, and a $40 billion dollar plus hit to the state’s economy when those levees fail."
The Senator continued:
"For those who argue that conveyance yet to be proposed, yet to be described, is the end to the world as we know it, I ask you to follow the science."
Battle Lines Drawn on Water: Issues of Conveyance, Governance and Financing.
The California Progress Report, August 2009. By David M. Greenwald, Editor
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