October 27, 2009
2009 Water Plan Hearings Start: "Deal" Or "No Deal" Time
With our state in the third year of drought, Governor Schwarzenegger ran a
veto gambit aimed at breaking the legislative logjam on a sorely needed
water deal to rebuild our crumbling state water system. The Governor clearly
set the stakes: "I'm fighting to rebuild our crumbling water system…. Water
is jobs for California, water is food, water is our future, water is our
economy."
Weeks of private "Big Five" sessions followed. What has emerged from State
Senate leaders is SB7X1 (by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg,
D-Sacramento.) Key aspects of the bill include: strict mandatory
conservation and groundwater management programs; guidelines on how
delta-area local governments will participate in management of the delta;
and the overall repeal of the current primary statute governing the delta
(the California Bay-Delta Authority Act) with the shifting of vital
authority on delta policy and development decisions to an independent,
seven-member state agency (the Delta Stewardship Council). Inside "buzz"
indicates that the most problematic issues regarding the bill will be
funding and the creation of the Delta Stewardship Council.
A joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly water committees on the bill
began on Monday, October 26. And, that is also when water reform
legislation requesting billions of dollars in bonds to repair levees and
build new dams could come forward.
In addressing the Southern California Water Committee last week, Governor
Schwarzenegger remained optimistic and unwavering stating that: "A water
system designed to serve 18 million people is collapsing under the pressure
of 38 million people. The Delta is dying. Federal judges, as we all know,
are turning off the pumps. Farmers can't plant crops. Building permits are
being denied. Jobs are being lost and lives are being destroyed…. [W]e have
areas where there's 40 percent-plus unemployment rate and people are
standing in the food line. So this is really outrageous. The water package
that we're negotiating is big and it is comprehensive. We will finally build
- if the legislators agree and come to an agreement, and we put it on the
ballot and it is approved by the people - we will build the peripheral
canal. We will build more above and below the ground water storage. We will
fix the Delta and its ecosystem. And we will require conservation and
groundwater monitoring and we will clean, also, the groundwater."
Federal legislative influences continue to impact the situation. Congressman
George Miller (D-CA, 7th Dist.) tried to gain passage of a water recycling
bill for the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Along with the Speaker of the
House, he has refused to allow San Joaquin Valley water legislation to be
debated unless Congress considers spending tens of millions of dollars on
water recycling programs that he wants. If Miller truly wants an efficient
water recycling project for his district, he should look to our own
state-of-the-art Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS).
Since the system began operating 22 months ago, it has taken 15 billion
gallons of highly treated sewer water supplied by the OC Sanitation District
and purified it into 10.5 billion gallons of new water. That's enough water
to fill 142 Angel Stadiums in Anaheim. Through an OC Sanitation District and
OC Water District partnership, highly treated sewer water that would have
been released back into the ocean is now being recycled. Approximately half
of this new water is used to recharge the groundwater basin. Twenty-five
percent of it is pumped 13 miles up along the Santa Ana River into ponds,
where it slowly percolates into the ground. The other twenty-five percent
goes to Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, where it is injected into
wells that build up a fresh water barrier and keep salty ocean water from
seeping inland.
So, for now, the water deal waiting plan continues. Are our state lawmakers
on the verge of an historic bipartisan comprehensive water deal vote? The
countdown continues.
