Dueling Water Proposals

There are two different water proposals to be considered in the special session called by Governor Schwarzenegger.

One proposal is that put forward by State Sen. Don Perata. It is listed as Senate Bill 1 of the 2nd Special Session: SBX2 1. PDF versin of the bill is available here.

Per Perata's press release, the bill provides:

the Water Supply Reliability General Obligation Bond, would appropriate $2.4 billion for restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of the state’s water system; $2 billion for regional water supply reliability projects, such as dams; and $1 billion to resolve environmental-water conflicts, such as the Salton Sea and Klamath River.

The outline of the Governor's proposal is on his government web site, but I could not find the legislative wording. The overview is as follows:

• $600 million from Propositions 50, 84 and 1E to immediately relieve pressure on the Delta environment.
• $5.6 billion in above and below ground water storage.
• $5.1 billion in surface storage
• $500 million in groundwater storage
• Identifies three locations for surface storage (Sites, Temperance Flat Reservoir and Los Vaqueros Expansion Project.)
• Specific criteria to assure public benefits and environmental benefits
• $1.9 billion for Delta Restoration and water supply reliability.
• $1.4 billion for habitat restoration
• $500 million in early actions to address environmental concerns in the Delta
• $1 billion in grants for conservation and regional water projects.
• $500 million in grants for specified watersheds throughout the state, including the San Joaquin River, Klamath River, Los Angeles River and others.

A journalist contact felt that a detailed comparison now would be worthless, since it will all change in the 1st week of October as the legislature tries to cram things together into a comprehensive ballot measure. They have a very short window to get these proposals onto the ballot for the February Presidential Primary. This whole thing probably has to be wrapped up by mid-October and many State Senators will not be back from their various "fact finding" junkets until Oct. 9th.

There is one very important fact to consider. The reservoirs proposed by the Governor will not come on line for many years and will primarily provide water for agricultural use. They do little or nothing to help urban water users or to support future population and economic growth.

Rush Put on Water Debate

I need to interrupt my sequence on the water issues to call your attention to a fine article by Hank Shaw in today's Stockton Record. Shaw is the Record's Capitol Bureau Chief, and as such offers some of the best commentary on the politics of water.

Schwarzenegger has called the Legislature into special session to deal with water supply issues in the hopes of crafting a compromise proposal that could appear on the February presidential primary ballot.

But that prospect appears to be dimming.

The deadline for any deal technically falls on Thursday, but even with the wiggle room lawmakers can afford themselves, a hard deadline appears to be mid-October. Dozens of lawmakers are overseas right now, visiting locales as far-flung as Azerbaijan, China, Argentina and Germany. A group of state senators will not return to the Capitol until Oct. 9.

I guess they legislature does not see this as being as urgent as the newspaper editorials (except the OC Register) indicated. Does water really matter for voters? Tell me what you think.

Another dry winter?

I am putting together some stories that are not always linked. But, I think that the logic will hold true and the conclusions are interesting, at least to me.

To begin with, Southern California has just had the driest year on record. In LA, it was the driest. Then, you add the complications of a developing La Niña condition and you have major trouble. From the Accuweather web site, Sept. 11, 2007.

If these trends of an increasing La Nina Pattern do turn out to be right, then this would be bad news for the Southwest, especially southern California and Arizona. In a La Nina season, drier-than-normal weather can be expected in the Southwest including southern California and Arizona. This pattern also means wetter-than-normal weather in the Northwest states. As most people know southern California had one of the driest rainfall seasons on record for 2006-2007. Los Angeles had the driest rainfall season ever on record. Another year of below-normal rainfall could lead to a real water problem in the summer of 2008.

I can not comment on how the media is handling this story in its entirety, but the LA Times has given this some attention. Alex quoted from that in a comment to one of my recent posts. This linked to their September 13 editorial, Coping with Drought. While I agree with most of that editorial, there are two elements with which I take minor exception. The first is that it does not go far enough in either educating the public or in creating a sense of urgency about action. The second is the statement regarding the effect of global warming. The Times says that

The effects of global warming on future water supplies are still unknown.

While this may be true of the scale of change, the consensus opinion is clear that the direction of change will be towards drier conditions in the Southwest, especially Southern California and Arizona. The map provided by High Country News (April 30, 2007) made this very clear. The essence of Matt Jenkins's article is in the tag line.

Global warming has spawned a call for new dams — but there may not be any water to fill them.

That calls into question Schwarzenegger's intent to spend over half of the $9 Billion he proposes on new dams.

However, the Metropolitan Water District, which is the water wholesaler for most of Southern California. In another LA Times story by Nancy Vogel, the Water District makes their priorities clear.

Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 17 million people from Ventura County to the Mexican border, said California needs more reservoir storage. But his agency has spent $4 billion on storage-related projects in the last 12 years, he said.

MWD's top concern, Kightlinger said, is finding a way to safeguard the export of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Here is the rub. The 17 Million people that the MWD represents are being told to spend their money on questionable projects. Those represent a lot of voters and will surely have things their way. This is the way that Democracy works in America. Politicians want to go to the largest group of people and brag about what they have done to support, to help, to ensure their future. Even when that is the wrong thing to do, those voters will surely be given preference. There is a tyranny in One Person, One Vote that can always be manipulated by any politician.

The battle for doing the right thing is going to be fought in Southern California. It will be fought in all the lawns and swimming pools of the San Fernando Valley. It will be fought as much in the pages of the LA Times, San Diego Union / Tribune and OC Register as it will in the halls of Sacramento. But, it is a battle that we must take on if we are to have a sustainable future.

Insuring our future.

While most (individuals, businesses, corporations) are ignoring the potential impacts of global warming, there is one industry which is paying close attention and doing everything it can to minimize the risk to it's shareholders, investors. That is the insurance industry who have significant risk were the oceans to rise, or more to the point, if global warming changed precipitation patterns and increased flood risk.

Blogger R. S. Guskind delivers the message in a very personal way at the Gowanus Lounge, a politically aware slice of Brooklyn life. The insurance companies are taking any increased flood risk very seriously, canceling policies and refusing to write new one for a very large area of one major city. If you view the flood map that Guskind provides, you will also note that the area at risk includes JFK airport.

I call your attention to this because we are still awaiting the release of new FEMA flood maps for the San Joaquin Valley. In the run up to the election of 2006, Hank Shaw reported that these flood maps and the timing of their release became part of the story with two incumbent congressmen, Dennis Cardoza (D. CA 18) and Richard Pombo (R. CA 11) making the effort to block their release in the month just prior to the election. The reasons are clear. If these flood maps had been released, the insurance companies would have reacted exactly as they have done in Brooklyn.

As we moved into 2007, with the maps still not available, the Insurance Journal reported that the size of the San Joaquin River flood plain could triple. Much of the development in San Joaquin County is taking place in the Delta, right in the flood plain of the San Joaquin River. The levee system the protects the Delta is in much worse shape than the levees that protected the City of New Orleans. Dr. Jeffrey Mount, once a member of the State Reclamation Board, gave the NY Times a good summary of just what is at stake.

Q. Why is there so much development in risky places?

A. Because the new gold rush in California is real estate. Moreover, local governments are often reluctant to exert controls over developers because of the tax revolution.

Do you remember Proposition 13 in 1978, which limited increases in property taxes on existing homes? It decimated the ability of localities to fund services. So money for basic services that people expect is now raised through growth.

Many municipalities have become very aggressive about development. I heard a Northern California county supervisor say that his county needed development on its flood plain to fund flood control projects.

When Dr. Mount and the Reclamation Board tried to take some action on this issue (2005), Governor Schwarzenegger fired the entire board.

There are two issues here that should be high on Green Party action lists. One is the reform of Prop 13. The other is the fact that government must pay real attention to the needs of its citizens rather than to the needs of the developers who contribute so much to their campaigns. When I singled out Cardoza and Pombo for attention at the beginning of this post, it was precisely because Stockton developer Fritz Grupe held a joint fundraiser for his good friends without regard to party. Perhaps the only way to break connection between developers and local government is to get Prop. 13 replaced. That will take a lot of voter indignation and we ought to be creating it right now. It may be the most important thing we can do for the State of California.

Why do we let them get away with it?

California must be blessed to have such a "green governor". Never mind that what he does gives a lie to what he says, too much of the main stream media allows him to get away with it. The news is what he says, not whether what he says makes sense, is truthful, or would benefit the people of California. It must be the news because Arnold is always good copy.

Those who would speak out, say something different, have a hard time to get any attention from anyone. All I have to do is to take you back to my favorite subject. the San Joaquin / Sacramento Delta. The overriding issue is whether the water there is safe to swim in, whether it will sustain fish, whether it can be used for farming. Why are these questions important? The Delta supplies the drinking water for over 20 million Californians and irrigation for over half a million acres of farm land.

Now, we find out that this state, with its "I won't raise taxes" governor and a legislature that can not meet a deadline to come up with a budget are letting our water resources fall apart as surely as the I-35 W bridge in Minneapolis.

In a press release from the California Sportfishing Protection Association today, Executive Director Bill Jennings lays it out clearly.

The Executive Officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) has acknowledged that the Board is so understaffed that it can’t meet its core regulatory mission of protecting the State’s water quality. This stunning admission came during Executive Officer Pamela Creedon’s State of the Central Valley Region presentation at the 2 August 2007 meeting of the Board. The Central Valley Region covers nearly 40% of the State’s land area, provides drinking water to two-thirds of the State’s population and includes reservoirs storing nearly 30 million acre feet of water. According to State reports, virtually all of the
waterways within the Region are impaired by an astonishing array of pesticides, metals, salts, pathogens, fertilizers and industrial chemicals.

Ms. Creedon admitted that, based upon a needs assessment, the Board has only:
a) 12% of the staff necessary to regulate stormwater discharges,
b) 16% of those required to regulate dairies,
c) 37% necessary to control municipal wastewater discharges,
d) 40% of those needed to regulate landfills,
e) 26% of those necessary to control discharges of waste to land and
f) only 22% of the staff crucial to enforcing conditions of the controversial agricultural waivers.

Since most of the media won't cover this (they claim that the public's eyes glaze over), it is up to people like Jennings and Dan Bacher (Ed. The Fish Sniffer) and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla from Restore the Delta

I fail to see the major environmental organizations (Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, etc.) taking effective action here. They talk all around the issue but when it comes down to time to actually do something, they convene another study group.

Be that as it may, even they are far ahead of the Green Party, which very few take seriously as a voice for ecological justice, mostly because the party is silent. We can turn out a few people for a demonstration now and then, but to actually organize and do some work? Fugetaboutit.

There are a lot of people who need to be educated and the one group that I see educating people is Restore the Delta. Schwarzenegger's solution is a peripheral canal (pipe?) that would drain even more fresh water from the delta to supply population growth in our urban centers or irrigation for high water demand crops such as alfalfa and cotton. Restore the Delta is, at least, trying to explain why this is bad and what we need to do instead. Let me refer you to their newsletter, Delta Flows, published today.

Besides recapping what I quoted from Jennings above, they put the blame right where it belongs.

Ecological restoration of the Delta will only happen with removal of the government barriers that are preventing restoration. These barriers include ineffective government policies and non-enforcement of laws resulting in (1) excessive freshwater exports either through the Delta or around the Delta (peripheral canal/pipe) continuing; (2) and incoming freshwater flows not meeting Clean Water Act standards.

Yes, it is our government, and ultimately ourselves who continue to fall for all of the Howard Jarvis lower tax BS. When our survival is at stake, maybe it is time to dig down and pay for the work that we need to have done.

Restore the Delta will be hosting a community seminar entitled “So What Is a Peripheral Pipe?” on September 19, 2007. This event will feature a community update on Restore the Delta activities, a talk on the effects of a peripheral pipe on the Delta by the Delta’s famous water rights attorney Dante Nomellini, and several other noteworthy environmental speakers.

The event will be held at the Sunset Bar and Grill at Tower Park Resort 14900 W. Highway 12, Lodi. A dinner buffet will be available at 6:00 p.m. The program will begin at 6:30 and last until 8:15 p.m. Dinner costs $20 per person, including tax and gratuities, and is payable at the door. Restore the Delta will provide coffee and dessert.

Lodi, that is where Pete McCloskey took his carpetbag to take on Richard Pombo. Maybe he knows the way back and can bring a few good friends.

Peripheral Canal

In several of my previous posts, I have referred to the Peripheral Canal as being a bad idea that Gov. Schwarzenegger has resurrected from it's voter rejection back in the 1980's. However, you should not take my word for it. Jonas Minton, writing in the Sacramento Bee this week has done a much better job. Minton, one time Deputy Director of the Department of Water Resources, State of CA, has surely forgotten more about this project than I would ever know.

While Minton is surely knowledgeable himself, he is wary of what the Governor is NOT telling us.

Look at the critical information they are not telling us: How large would such a canal be? How much would it cost? Would it be $1 billion, $5 billion, $10 billion? Who would pay for it? Who would benefit (e.g. corporate agriculture) and what subsidies would they receive? How would it survive a rise in sea level? The proposed intake near Hood just south of Sacramento and the canal would be less than 5 feet above current sea level. If billions of gallons of freshwater were diverted each day before entering the Delta, what would that do to the farms and fish dependent on that water?

The Governor's prescience seems much like that of President Bush in the lead up to the Iraq War. From Bob Woodward we learned that Bush started to plan the Iraq war only 3 months after 9/11. Such is the risk of leadership that one has to personally carry the full responsibility for every such decision. You have to be right every time. Bush wasn't and it looks as if Schwarzenegger isn't either.

Now is the Time

I have not posted for quite a while, so I have a buildup of frustration and will post several things this AM. It only took a magazine cover to wake me from my slumber.

You should all pick up a copy of Time Magazine this week. I call your attention to the cover where photo of the new storm floodwall in New Orleans carries this caption.

Two years after Katrina, this floodwall is all that stands between New Orleans and the next hurricane. It's pathetic. How a perfect storm of big money politics, shoddy engineering and environmental ignorance is setting up the city for another catastrophe.

The author, Michael Grunwald, pulls no punches and blows away a number of myths, not the least of which was that Katrina was a horrendous Cat 5 storm at New Orleans.

The most important thing to remember about the drowning of New Orleans is that it wasn't a natural disaster. It was a man-made disaster, created by lousy engineering, misplaced priorities and pork-barrel politics. Katrina was not the Category 5 killer the Big Easy had always feared; it was a Category 3 storm that missed New Orleans, where it was at worst a weak 2.

You can read the entire story here.

When I think of the amount of effort that people like Susan King put into the recovery effort I just get sick. When I contrast the on the ground leadership of Malik Rahim to the mess described by Grunwald, I feel like crying. Such a missed opportunity and such empty promises where Bush's promise to rebuild was just another declaration of the end to major combat. It is worse than pathetic, the word Time used on their cover. It is criminal.

This is particularly important for us in this state and at this time. We are dealing with many of the same issues: failing levees that need major repair if not replacement, big money politics at every turn, politicians who care more for their own image or career than the welfare of the people that they represent. There is not a single plan for the future of the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta that meets the smell test. Sure, Núñez, Perata and Schwarzenegger promise to get things done. But they won't. Follow the money. When it comes time to do something, the money will be less than needed. It will get used on some legislator's pet project. There will be no accountability.

When the Green Party of California convenes it's general assembly in Riverside, perhaps there should be a moment of silence during which we can all think about the money that could have helped repair the levees in New Orleans but went instead to build a highway off-ramp to a riverboat casino. Then think about what we can be doing to make sure that it does not happen again, here, in this state, on our watch.

This is one issue that I will not let drop and I ask all of you to do the same.

California Charming

• The most recent edition of High Country News takes a jaundiced look at our green as a dollar bill governor. Editor John Mecklin finds exactly the right description (of Schwarzenegger with Tony Blair) in his editorial.

It was a typical Schwarzenegger performance, by which I mean to say it was charming and, as is too often the case with the telegenic former Terminator, unrealistic. Discounting asteroid and comet strikes, there are two primary threats to humanity’s existence: nuclear war (which Schwarzenegger will have no chance of addressing outside the four corners of a movie screen) and global warming, which he could address, but is instead using as the set for his latest politico-cinematic feature, Arnold Against the Hotness.

This supports the longer cover story: "Hydrogen Highway Revisited" which provides a does of reality.

Once more, someone has to be calling the Governator on his slick promotions before he promotes us all into oblivion. It is a role that is perfectly suited for the Green Party if only the GPCA were willing to be the vehicle for this effort. We all saw what the California Nurses Association did with Arnold. I believe that the Green Party should be making a similar effort to take him to task for promoting policies of ecological collapse while touting his own green-ness.

The list of failures waiting to happen increases with every new challenge he faces.

• Water solutions that will destroy the delta.
• Cap and trade system for CO2.
• Maybe a new forest fire control policy for Tahoe (yet to be specified).
  

The time for this action is now.

Action Alert

I don't like pushing Alex's opinion piece on the 37th District special election down the page. Everyone interested in Green Politics should read it. And when you are done, read Gregg Jocoy's comments on the same subject from South Carolina.

However, I also think that it is important for every California reader to pay attention to the following action alert and CALL GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER on Monday morning. I received 3 copies of this alert this morning: one from Restore the Delta whose Healthy Delta Communities effort we helped sponsor, one from the Planning and Conservation League and one from Dan Bacher, the editor of the Fish Sniffer magazine. This is moving so fast that none of these organizations have this alert on their web site's yet.

The facts that triggered this coordinated action are those that I posted yesterday. There is really a sense of urgency about this, because the plans that are working their way through the Sacramento Bureaucracy are just a reflection of the needs of powerful special interest groups, including water districts that claim to represent the "people" but are closely tied to City / Developer growth at all costs planning.

__ from the Planning and Conservation League __

ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS IN THE DELTA

DELTA SMELT ARE on the BRINK of EXTINCTION

Results from a just completed survey by the Department of Fish & Game:


--Scientists failed to find any smelt in 30 of 36 stations in the Delta

--The survey found only 25 smelt overall; a 93% drop from 2006

--This is the worst return in the history of this survey, in fact these numbers are ONE TENTH of previous record lows



NO RESPONSE TO SAVE THESE FISH

--Even though SEVERAL Delta species have been collapsing for SIX YEARS, the State has refused to commit to actions to avoid extinction

--Last year the State and Federal water projects exported near RECORD amounts of water through massive pumps in the Delta Smelt?s habitat

--The State pumped 55 BILLION gallons of "EXTRA" water in January even while they were telling the Judge there was no problem with smelt

MORE DELTA FISH ARE HEADED TOWARD EXTINCTION

Severe declines in multiple fish populations show that the Delta ecosystem is collapsing. Since 2005 the State and Federal governments have known about the problem, but have failed to commit to actions to save the Delta.

WHAT MUST BE DONE TO SAVE THE DELTA SMELT?

Scientists' recommendations to help the Delta Smelt must be immediately implemented (see attachment below).

Call the Governor and tell him to commit to actions to save the Delta Smelt before its too late!

Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Phone: 916-445-2841
http://www.govmail.ca.gov/

More information:

Tom Philp of the Sacramento Bee?s Blog provides a link to the Delta Smelt Working Group's recommendations to respond to the delta smelt crisis:

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/water/archives/DSWG_Briefing_Statement_15May07.pdf

Hank Shaw's blog on this issue:

http://blogs.recordnet.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?en=&redirCnt=2&nav=main&webtag=sr-hshaw





During May 2007, pumps have taken more smelt (84) than the Delta survey (8):

http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/dsmeltsplitdly.pdf

Department of Fish and Game

20 mm survey: http://www.delta.dfg.ca.gov/data/20mm/CPUE_map.asp

Notes from Delta Action Team (State and Federal Agencies)

http://wwwoco.water.ca.gov/calfedops/dat/2007/05_08_2007.pdf

See how this year's most recent DFG survey of Delta Smelt compares to similarly-timed surveys in years past: (click here to view).