[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 5/22/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 22, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

SALTON SEA:

Sea restoration clears hurdle, draws heat; Campaign's defenders press ahead, seek funding for Salton Sea's future - Desert Sun

 

WEST SACRAMENTO LEVEE ISSUES:

Editorial: West Sac's big vote; Flood protection prompts a special election - Sacramento Bee

 

 

SALTON SEA:

Sea restoration clears hurdle, draws heat; Campaign's defenders press ahead, seek funding for Salton Sea's future

Desert Sun – 5/22/07

By Jake Henshaw, staff writer

 

A bill to provide millions of dollars to the Salton Sea restoration passed a state committee Monday, but not before supporters got a glimpse of the kind of criticism they may face in the future.

 

Prior to the Senate Appropriations Committee approving a sea restoration bill, Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, said he wanted a "written explanation" of the production and cost of a soft-sided book about support for the project to save the state's largest lake.

 

"I've seen some ridiculously expensive presentations before. This tops them all," Ashburn said to Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, the bill's author. "This is an embarrassment for your district."

 

Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, a committee member, jumped to the defense of the Salton Sea Authority and its publication.

 

"To put this together and show how many people are supportive is not a complete waste of money," Battin said. "It is a good thing to show that there is such unanimity behind the revitalization of the sea."

 

Rick Daniels, executive director of the authority, later said the publication is a compilation of resolutions of support from a wide range of cities, water districts, health districts and others in the Salton Sea region.

 

"We looked at how we were going to present them and we decided we needed to do something that gives them the respect they were entitled to," Daniels said.

 

He said the authority has distributed about 400 of 500 of the books produced to state and federal legislators, members of the advisory committee that has studied restoration, the governor's office and others.

 

Donations covered the roughly $7,000 cost, Daniels said.

 

"This is the first comment we've gotten" about them, he added. Daniels said he'll write a letter explaining the background on the books.

 

But he said he also learned an important lesson from the experience, especially as he begins to seek support for restoration from individuals and groups from outside the Salton Sea area.

 

"I have to remember that not everybody lives this, that they've not been studying it for 10 years," Daniels said. "It's a good lesson for me."

 

Lack of specifics

 

While the Senate Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 187, Daniels said supporters are a "little bit hamstrung" in trying to talk about the sea restoration because they don't have a specific plan.

 

Backers want state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman to release his restoration recommendation, describing a course of action expected to cost about $6billion and based on the work of an advisory committee.

 

Release of the recommendation has been delayed, but may come out by the end of May, based on what Daniels and others have been told.

 

The Chrisman restoration plan is expected to become part of Ducheny's Senate Bill 187, which also would set aside $47 million authorized in a previously voter-approved water bond to help fund initial work.

 

Daniels said he's beginning to discuss the project with various state groups such as builders and labor unions as well as the state organizations of counties and cities.

 

"We can only talk in generalities and these people's time is too valuable to talk in generalities," Daniels said. "We need to be specific and direct."

 

The bill next goes to the full Senate. #

http://www.desertsunonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/NEWS0701/705220324/1006/news01

 

 

WEST SACRAMENTO LEVEE ISSUES:

Editorial: West Sac's big vote; Flood protection prompts a special election

Sacramento Bee – 5/22/07

 

West Sacramento property owners will soon find an important envelope in their mailboxes.

 

Ballots are expected to be sent today to property owners to see if they are willing to invest in better flood protection for West Sacramento. They should answer with a resounding Yes.

 

West Sacramento is a community ringed by levees. It depends on these flood walls to survive threats from the Sacramento River or the Yolo Bypass.

 

These levees aren't as strong as originally thought by local flood officials. The officials have responded with a thorough package of improvements that would give the city the kind of protection it needs. As soon as property owners get this ballot, they should send it back in the mail with a Yes vote.

 

The structure of this election is quite similar to one that recently occurred on the other side of the river in Sacramento County.

 

There, floodplain property owners got to vote on a property assessment that would help fund a range of flood protection projects along the Sacramento and American rivers. Property owners, not registered voters, have a say in these mail-ballot elections for these special assessments. If a majority of the property owners say Yes (the vote is weighted by the amount of assessment the property owner is to pay), the assessment passes.

 

In the case of the Sacramento County election, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of better flood protection -- more than 80 percent. There appears to be a heightened awareness of the vulnerabilities in the current system and a corresponding desire to avoid a Katrina-type disaster here in the floodplain. This awareness, plus a high community regard for the local officials behind the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, help to explain the high Yes vote in Sacramento County.

 

Here's hoping those factors will hold sway in West Sacramento as well. West Sacramento officials have been making all the right moves to make that happen. They conducted a thorough review of the stability of the levee system to find the potential weak spots. They imposed a fee on new development so that growth pays a reasonable share of the improvements. And now they are asking all property owners to help with these timely investments.

 

If the assessment passes, about half of the single-family homes would be assessed $40 to $100 a year. Roughly another half would pay an assessment that is between $100 and $130 annually. This is a bargain, considering the very good chances of matching this local investment with state and federal funds.

 

West Sacramento property owners have until July 10 to mail those ballots back. But there's no reason to procrastinate. And there is a very real reason to make these flood improvements now, while state funds (thanks to a statewide bond issue approved last November) are available. Just another reason for property owners to vote Yes for protecting West Sacramento. #

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/188668.html

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