U.S. Water News Online
SACRAMENTO -- Warning the business lobby and farmers to back off, Senate Democrats said it should be up to the governor and Legislature to decide how to control the state's water supplies next year.
Deadlocked over dams, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have failed to broker a deal on water this year, making little progress since the governor called a special session in September to craft a water plan.
Frustrated with the inaction, the California Chamber of Commerce and its allies announced their own water bond initiatives _ a move Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said exacerbated the political gridlock at the Capitol.
"We're going to negotiate, and we're going to do it the right way," Perata said at a news conference at a Sacramento park overlooking the Sacramento River. "We're not going to have any interruptions, disruptions or alternatives."
The chamber is circulating four versions of an $11.7 billion bond initiative that would set aside billions of dollars for dams without the Legislature's approval. Several versions would fund a new system to divert water from the Sacramento River water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and send it to Southern California. Voters defeated a similar proposal, known as the Peripheral Canal, in 1982.
Sen. David Cogdill, R-Modesto, who is among the Senate negotiators, said the chamber's proposal might be the only way to bring a water bond to voters, now that a bond he and Schwarzenegger had sought won't make it on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot.
If Democrats don't have a comprehensive plan that includes both dams and a new system to channel water in the delta, "then we need to rally around the chamber's initiative to give voters that chance," he said in a statement.
Lawmakers have tangled over new dams for decades. Republicans favor them as a way to increase water supplies and improve flood control, while Democrats and environmental groups support spending money on conservation, groundwater cleanup, water recycling and reclamation.
The impasse has left the state without clear direction on how to respond to a federal judge's ruling this September that will curtail its water exports next year. The court found that pumping by state and federal water agencies has killed the threatened delta smelt and should be limited in the winter and spring.
Reduced pumping in the delta could mean a third less water makes it to some 25 million Californians and thousands of acres of farmland next year, officials have said. Cities are also worried water supplies could be short if the state has another dry year.
Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans have said the state should build two new reservoirs and expand a third, as well as restore the delta's ecosystem and promote conservation. Schwarzenegger also has endorsed building a new system to funnel water to Los Angeles, but he has not provided funding for it.
Perata has offered his own $6.8 billion bond initiative, which would fund water recycling, groundwater aquifers, conservation programs and delta restoration. It would allow communities to build dams, but they would have to compete with other water proposals for bond funding.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor, who spoke with the four legislative leaders about a water bond, is hoping to reach a deal as quickly as possible.
"We've always focused on solving this legislatively," McLear said.
Perata said water negotiations were on hold until after the holidays _ with a new target date to put a water bond on the June or November ballot.
Meanwhile, Perata and Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, announced they had formed a campaign committee with environmental groups to oppose the chamber's bond proposal. Perata said they had already secured $1 million in pledges from environmentalists and others.
The chamber filed four versions of the measure and will spend the next several weeks deciding which one to pursue.
Whether any of the initiatives will go ahead is still unclear, however. Chamber president Allan Zaremberg said in a statement he still hopes lawmakers eventually reach a deal on water.
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