End the charade

Three-quarters of likely California voters disapprove of their state Legislature this month and think it is run by a few special interests. This is the worst rating the Legislature has received in the 11 years of Public Policy Institute of California polling, the institute reported this week. The names of those interests are FIRE – Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.
 
Why would FIRE be interested in California water?

Badlands Journal editorial board
 
Indybay
Senator Lois Wolk Withdraws Authorship of Delta Conservancy Bill...Dan Bacher...9-10-09
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/09/18621433.php
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern than the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Senator Wolk withdraws authorship of Delta bill in protest
Groups slam water bill package...Dan Bacher
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern that the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk took this unusual action after being notified by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) that her legislation would be amended in a Water Conference Committee with provisions Senator Wolk and the five Delta counties opposed. Wolk has been replaced with Senators Steinberg and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) as the authors of SB 458.
"When I learned that the Conference Committee intended to alter key provisions of the bill, as well as other pieces of the water package, it was clear I could no longer carry this legislation," said Senator Wolk. "What began as a sincere effort to create a state and local partnership to restore the Delta and sustain the Delta communities and economy is becoming, day by day, amendment by amendment, a tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk's withdrawal of the legislation authorship comes as a huge, diverse coalition of northern California water agencies, Delta farmers, fishermen, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, California Indian Tribes and others are opposing Steinberg's mad rush to push water legislation through the Capitol by Friday, the last day of the legislative session. They are asking Steinberg and the Committee to delay the legislation, a thinly-veiled road road map to the peripheral canal that greatly undermines the public trust and California water rights law, until next session.
Steinberg, in an effort to push a peripheral canal and water bond that would result in increased water exports out of the imperiled Delta, excluded Wolk, Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) and other Delta Legislators from the politically-stacked 14 member Water Conference Committee.
"It is regrettable," said Wolk of the amendments to her bill and the exclusion of Delta legislators and residents from the water bill process. "Without the Delta communities as working partners in this effort it is unlikely to succeed."
The California Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, encompasses five counties, 27 cities and two ports. It provides world class birding, fishing, wind-surfing and hiking—and is home to 500,000 acres of small family farms that produce world class pears, asparagus, wine grapes, and contribute $2 billion to California's economy, according to Wolk.
It provides habitat for 90 percent of California’s chinook salmon, which not only support the West Coast’s $1 billion salmon fishery but are also a critical food source for the southern resident population of killer whales. Unfortunately, record water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California in recent years have resulted in the collapse of Central Valley salmon, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass and other fish populations.
On the same day Wolk withdrew her authorship of SB 458, representatives from Restore the Delta, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network, Friends of the River, Heal the Bay, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and the Environmental Water Caucus issued a joint statement slamming the "closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings" in the California State Legislature.
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem," the groups stated. "It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians."
The following is the joint statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2009
Contact: Roger Salazar (for Restore the Delta) (916) 444-8897
Statement from Delta Community, Environment and Fishing Groups on Results of Joint Water Conference Committee Closed-Door Negotiations
Sacramento - Today, representatives from Restore the Delta; the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance; the California Water Impact Network; Friends of the River; Heal the Bay; Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations; the Winnemem Wintu Tribe; and the Environmental Water Caucus issued the following joint statement regarding the closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings in the California State Legislature:
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem.
“It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians.
“Instead of bringing groups together to find common ground on these complex issues the California Legislature has decided to fall back into an all too familiar pattern that includes:
· Making up the rules as they go along without regard to legislative deadlines.
· Writing the legislation in the dark of night without any public input or review.
· Proposing to abdicate their own oversight authority by allowing an unelected body of gubernatorial appointees to make key decisions regarding tens of billions of dollars on water projects, statewide water fees and management of the Delta.
“We agree that water is one of the highest priority issues for our state, but it must be done right and not just right away.
“The last time the Legislature rushed and put water politics over good water policy, the voters responded by overturning the Peripheral Canal via referendum in 1982.
“In the face of recent surveys showing the public would still overwhelmingly reject the legislative water package should it appear before them in 2010 either directly in the form of a bond or indirectly as the result of another referendum, it is astonishing that the Legislature would continue with this charade.” #####
Contra Costa Times
Last-ditch gambit made for Delta fix
Capitol to mull deal before break...Mike Taugher
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13310701
Lawmakers who have had few successes this year are expected to decide before midnight Friday whether to go forward with a far-reaching and potentially very expensive plan to revamp the state's water laws and the future of the Delta.
Two of the biggest pieces of the legislative puzzle were released early Thursday morning, and perhaps the biggest piece -- how to pay for it -- had not yet been made public late Thursday. If negotiations on financing fall through, it is possible that the bills might not reach the full Legislature.
Nevertheless, legislative leaders anxious to make progress on something important are hopeful of getting the package approved Friday, the last day of the 2009 session.
At the center of debate is a controversial canal that would take Sacramento River water around the Delta to as far away as Southern California -- an aqueduct that many of the state's biggest water agencies want and that some environmental groups say is worthy of consideration, but that many Delta representatives adamantly oppose.
The legislation sets conditions on the canal -- namely that it not be approved until it is assured that adequate water flows remain for the Delta ecosystem, and that approval be granted if it meets the standards of the state's Natural Community Conservation Planning law, which is meant to go further than endangered species laws and actually lead to full recovery of degraded ecosystems.
The latest drafts, however, leave open the possibility for the canal to be approved even if plans fall short of that standard.
"It's the most complex water deal we have dealt with in a half-century," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
Quinn said his group, which represents most of the state's water agencies, was opposed to the package as written but hoped it could be substantially improved Friday.
Particularly troubling for water agencies, who could be on the hook for billions in new infrastructure costs, was the policy embedded in the bills that the state would reduce its reliance on the Delta for water and find other ways to meet the growing state's thirst.
A scientific finding of such a necessity might be acceptable, Quinn said, but a policy determination that less water would be available from the Delta was unacceptable to water districts that could be spending billions.
"We're going to make it worse," he said. "That's bad policy."
Some environmental groups support the package, with the caveat that could change if the financing plan is too expensive or promised dams might be environmentally destructive.
Delta and local environmental groups, many of whom are dead set against a peripheral canal, are largely opposed.
Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, pulled out as author of one of the five policy bills in the package -- a bill to create a Delta conservancy -- saying backroom negotiations among legislative leaders and some of the biggest water districts had watered down the bill.
In particular, she was angered by a change that relieved water districts from the cost of compensating Delta counties for economic damage they might cause. Construction of a canal, which could have a right-of-way as wide as 1,000 feet, and the wetlands restoration that would accompany it would take Delta land out of economic production and off tax rolls. Wolk said those who divert water should contribute to offsetting the economic damage that would result.
"What they did in the middle of the night was remove the language that would allow economic sustainability to be part of the calculus," Wolk said. "The partnerships between the counties and the state have been ruptured."
It was unknown late Thursday how the package would be paid for, but lawmakers were in talks for a bond package.
Delta package
Lawmakers on Friday will consider a five-part package plus a finance plan that had not been released late Thursday. The bills would:
  Allow a controversial canal to be built under certain conditions and reform much of the way California's water is governed.
  Require a Delta plan be created to implement a "Delta Vision" plan adopted by an independent task force last year.
  Require urban water agencies to reduce water use by 20 percent per capita statewide, though the bill contains loopholes for parts of the state.
  Establish a Delta Conservancy.
  Stiffen enforcement of water rights and regulate use of groundwater.