Comprehensive Water Bond Needed For February Ballot

Those of us who live and work in the Central Valley understand the impact water has on our lives, jobs and economy. We are also well aware of the state’s water crisis and how desperately we need a statewide solution to ensure reliable, safe, clean water supplies for the entire state.

Governor Schwarzenegger has called a Special Session of the Legislature for October to address water issues. The goal should be to place a water bond on the February 2008 ballot which includes funding to address the severe problems in the San Joaquin Delta, develop new above and below ground water storage facilities, protect the environment and ensure adequate water supplies for our state well into the future. Conservation should be a key part of the state’s water strategy, but that alone will not solve our problems. We need a more comprehensive solution.

It is not hyperbole to say there is a water crisis in California. The need is obvious. No significant new investments have been made in our systems that store and deliver water statewide in more than 30 years. Here are the facts:

In the Valley:

On October 3, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors asked Governor Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency because of concerns about water supply shortages.

Drinking water supplies for residents in Hanford, Coalinga, Kingsburg, Fresno, Bakersfield and Alpaugh (to name a few) are threatened because inadequate supplies have forced underground pumping which depletes groundwater stored in the San Joaquin Valley underground aquifers.

Over the past few years, farmers have been fallowing land due to lack of rainfall and water shortages. In 2001-2003, the last period for which data is available, 750 farm worker jobs were cut. The ripple effect, fewer purchases of seed, fertilizer, supplies and support services meant an annual loss of about $23.2 million to the local economies. That was four years ago. It’s gotten worse since then.

Water shortages crippling the ag industry will cripple the entire state. Ag generates $100 billion in economic activity, millions of jobs, and billions of tax dollars goes to the state general fund to pay for education, health care, transportation and other critical state needs.

The situation is no better in the rest of California:

The health of the San Joaquin Delta is vital to the entire state. Millions of gallons of water for the Bay Area and Southern California is pumped through the Delta each day. In late August, a federal judge ordered a shutdown of two of the biggest pumps to protect the endangered Delta smelt and said there would be more shutdowns in 2008.

For the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which serves 18 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties, cutbacks from the Delta could slash its Northern California supplies by 30 percent. That’s about two-thirds of the water imported to Southern California.

The San Diego Water Authority, which distributes from MWD to 3 million residents and businesses in San Diego, has called for water cutbacks. The city of Long Beach instituted water rationing. Other cities are considering the same.

Fighting fires continues to be a concern. Experts predict warmer temperatures because of climate change. That means less rainfall, diminished snowpack in the Sierras and earlier snowmelt. 2007 was a low rainfall year, leaving reservoirs well-below capacity. Southern California fire officials are understandably worried about water supplies needed to protect homes and businesses.

We can no longer afford to limp along on a system built decades ago to serve a much smaller state population and state economy. That system is much less reliable today and growing less reliable due to environmental conflict, seismic risk, and climate change. A comprehensive state water bond with funding to restore reliability, restore the environment and meet future water needs for all interests must be put before voters in February 2008. The deadline for the legislature to place this bond on the ballot is October 16.

A comprehensive water bond would include funding for:

Restoring the San Joaquin Delta and developing a reliable water delivery system to move water throughout the state. The Delta is the axis of California’s water delivery system. Decades of water pumping has rendered its ecosystem a disaster. The Delta is also vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters. To continue to solely to rely on the Delta is to stick our heads in the sand. We need funding to restore the Delta’s ecosystem and to develop a new infrastructure that moves water around the Delta, restoring and protecting its ecosystem yet still ensuring water delivery to the 25 million residents and businesses and 750,000 acres of farmland that depend on it.

Additional reservoirs to store water in wet years so the state has enough for dry years. Today’s water infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the state’s demand and as a result, we’ve relied too much on existing supplies to the detriment of the environment. To allow millions of acre feet of water to simply flow into the ocean, wasted, does neither the people nor the environment any good. We need to invest in new water reservoirs and underground storage aquifers to capture excess water and ensure an available supply of safe, clean, reliable water in dry years to meet the needs of residents, businesses, agriculture and the environment. Additional storage will assist in flood management efforts, fighting fires and providing clean electrical power.

Improved water quality for people and the environment. A clean, safe, reliable source of drinking water is a necessity of life. Our economy, the 6th largest in the world, depends on an adequate supply of water as well. Planning now to build the facilities necessary to responsibly move and store water will ensure people, the economy and the environment win.

I plan to do all that is humanly possible to work with my colleagues in the Legislature to place a comprehensive water bond on the February ballot. Failing to proactively address California’s water future now puts our residents, economy and environment at risk. The crisis is real.