Delta Flows – Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta for the Week of February 18, 2008
"There are no tricks in plain and simple faith."
---Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein Opt for a Legislative Solution for Meeting State Water Needs
Restore the Delta staff members have been riding the water bond roller coaster, with all its hills, valleys, and hairpin turns, since the last quarter of 2007. Today, we arrive at a possible point of faith and hope.
Yesterday, after hosting a meeting of numerous parties involved in planning for California’s water supply, Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein both gave comments supporting a legislative solution to creating infrastructure for California’s water needs, rather than endorsing the Chamber of Commerce’s water bond initiatives.
Restore the Delta supporters have done and excellent job writing and phoning Governor Schwarzenegger and Diane Feinstein to express our opposition to the Chamber of Commerce Water Bond Proposals. These bond proposals contained language to build or promote alternative conveyance that would bring further harm to the Delta and failed to aggressively promote water conservation and recycling programs which will need to become the underpinning for our way of life in California. We thank each and every one of you for your efforts. You are what Restore the Delta is all about.
Simultaneously, Senator Michael Machado (D-Linden) has done an outstanding job protecting and promoting Delta interests and bringing important local Delta leaders such as Tom Zuckerman, John Herrick, and Alex Hildebrand into further conversation with Senator Feinstein.
As of this moment, we do not know the Chamber of Commerce’s plans regarding their water bond initiatives, and we know that we must remain vigilant in making Delta interests a priority for California throughout this year’s legislative session. But we remain hopeful that a proposal can be crafted that will protect Delta fisheries, agriculture, and recreation, while providing for the water needs of our neighbors throughout California.
For more information on yesterday’s meeting, please find pasted below a copy of Hank Shaw’s article from The Record. And again, thank you to our supporters who always come through for the California Delta.
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Water war foes have discussion
Fate of bond hangs in balance
By Hank Shaw
Capitol Bureau Chief
February 22, 2008
SACRAMENTO - Top-level talks between the warring factions in California's water supply feud restarted Thursday after a winter hiatus, with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein now playing the role of moderator.
"We got stuck, and so it was great for the senator to rekindle it again," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said following the private, two-hour meeting.
Feinstein, Schwarzenegger and a slew of state lawmakers and water interests met face to face for the first time in a year, giving all a chance to vent and set down their political bottom lines without the filter of aides or the media.
Both sides
• The bond supporters have a Web site at cawaterfuture.org.
• See the opposing TV ad on YouTube at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RQb3vWyBDzE
"The group was large enough where political differences were aired and people got to see them," said state Sen. Michael Machado, a Linden Democrat who is among the Legislature's foremost experts on water issues. "That doesn't always happen."
Machado, Schwarzenegger and several others who attended the meeting characterized it as a sort of opening scene in what most view as a water supply bond's final act. If they fail this year, the next political window may not be until 2012.
As Feinstein noted: "2010 is a governor's race - probably not the best way to go."
Supporters of a water supply bond that includes money to build new dams - possibly on the San Joaquin River near Fresno or along the Sacramento River near Colusa - have plans to put an initiative on the ballot this fall.
Environmentalists and their allies among the Democrats say building costly new reservoirs isn't a wise use of scare taxpayer dollars because the state can secure far more water through stiffer conservation efforts and underground water storage.
Farmers and their allies among the Republicans say with climate change coming, more of the crucial Sierra Nevada snowpack will fall as rain instead of snow, making new reservoirs necessary to catch that runoff.
Feinstein, who has stepped up as broker in this long-running drama, shares much, but not all, of that view: "We have to be able to store some water in wet years to save for dry years ... you may or may not need dams."
Outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who attended Thursday's meeting, is teaming up with the environmental community to oppose the dam proposal with a series of radio and TV ads that began running this week.
Stockton businessman Dean Cortopassi is a major funder of the anti-dam campaign, in no small part because it contains provisions that could lead to a Peripheral Canal around the Delta. Cortopassi has contributed $250,000 to the effort.
Schwarzenegger and Feinstein said they want to avoid a ballot battle if at all possible.
"The preferable outcome is a legislative solution," Feinstein said.
"There has to be something bipartisan that comes out of this. The key is to keep these people together."
Schwarzenegger said the group intends to meet
again in two weeks.
