California Water Crisis Proposal

California Water Crisis Proposal



2007 September -   California Governor 
Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a $9 billion water infrastructure 
proposal to be introduced in the legislative special session that he 
called in response to California’s water crisis. The plan adds about $3 
billion above and beyond the water plan the governor introduced in the 
spring. 
Schwarzenegger says $600 million is needed to immediately relieve pressure 
on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from environmental challenges and to 
respond to an August 31 federal court ruling that will reduce water 
deliveries from the Delta to Southern California. 
The water is being withheld to save the small silvery Delta smelt that has 
been declining year by year due to low water levels in its habitat and now 
is on the brink of extinction. 
Twenty five million Californians rely on the Delta for drinking water. It 
also irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland 
and it is the backbone of California’s $32 billion agricultural industry. 
"Our water crisis has gotten worse with the dry conditions and the recent 
federal court action that is going to have a devastating impact on the 
state's economy and the 25 million Californians who depend on Delta 
water," said the governor. "We need a comprehensive fix. That is why we 
are introducing two bills to solve California’s water crisis in both the 
short and long-term. I look forward to working and negotiating with my 
partners in the Legislature so we can approve a comprehensive upgrade to 
California’s water infrastructure." 
Written in two bills authored by Assembly Republican Leader Michael 
Villines, a Fresno Republican and Senator Dave Cogdill, a Modesto 
Republican, the proposal represents a combination of ideas previously 
detailed in proposals by the governor and legislative leaders. 
The proposal includes $5.6 billion for water storage, and identifies three 
locations for surface storage in reservoirs. The Temperance Flat Reservoir 
would be created with a new dam on the San Joaquin River; the Sites 
Reservoir would require a dam diverting water from the Sacramento River, 
and the the third effort would be the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion 
Project in Contra Costa County. 
The governor proposes to spend nearly $2 billion in Delta restoration in 
addition to the first $600 million. Of that funding, $1.4 billion would be 
spent for habitat restoration, and $500 million would fund early actions 
to address environmental concerns in the Delta. 
$1 billion would be fund grants for conservation and regional water 
projects and $500 million would be spent for specific water restoration 
projects. 
The governor's previous $5.9 billion water storage proposal was turned 
back in April by Democrats in the state Senate who said it was too costly 
and too little was known about how it would help California out of the 
water crisis. 
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles and Senate President Pro Tem 
Don Perata of the Bay Area, both Democrats, said last week that they 
intend to reach agreement by September 27 to approve a new 
multibillion-dollar bond to pay for water storage and a solution to 
environmental problems in the Delta, such as a canal that Schwarzenegger 
has backed. 
That time frame would allow the bond to go on the February 5, 2008 
presidential primary election ballot. 

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