Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 24, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Rally demands state face up to water crisis
The Sacramento
Farmworkers, state officials urge passage of water bond at Capitol rally
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Rally demands state face up to water crisis
The Sacramento
By E.J. Schultz
Chanting "agua, agua, agua," busloads of farmworkers joined politicians at the Capitol Wednesday to demand that lawmakers spend state money on dams and canals to ease a growing water crisis.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants $9.3 billion for water supply and conservation projects. But the proposed bond has gotten a lukewarm response from Democratic leaders who say lawmakers should focus on negotiating a state budget, now 24 days late.
Wednesday's rally was designed to give a human face to the state's water woes. At least 300 farmworkers, most from the Valley's parched west side, marched and carried homemade signs declaring "agua es vida," or water is life, and "agua = trabajo," water equals work.
The event was organized by farm labor contractor Piedad Ayala and the California Latino Water Coalition, a group of city and business leaders.
Schwarzenegger addressed the workers from the Capitol's steps just below the Assembly chambers. He blamed legislators for the impasse.
"When will they finally get it upstairs?" he asked. "Everyone needs water," he added. "This is not a political issue."
A drought and court-ordered pumping cutbacks from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have forced some growers to abandon crops and lay off workers. Total farm losses statewide reached $245 million as of July 11, including $73.5 million in
Efren Salceda, a farmworker from Firebaugh who came to the rally, said conditions are as bad as he has seen in his 30 years on the job. He said he's working fewer hours, leaving his monthly paycheck about $400 short of what it usually is.
He came to
Schwarzenegger has been trying to broker a water deal since early 2007 but has run into resistance from Democrats, who have opposed using state money for dams. Environmentalists say that all of the good sites for dams are taken and that the projects would benefit only a few select users.
Schwarzenegger's latest proposal calls for dams to compete with groundwater storage and other supply projects for $3 billion.
The biggest priority for west Valley farmers is money for the long-debated peripheral canal to pump water around the Delta southward. Schwarzenegger's plan does not earmark money for a canal. Rather, the bond would be used to "assist the Delta's sustainability."
The governor is targeting the proposal for the Nov. 4 ballot. At the latest, lawmakers have until Aug. 16 to get a bond on the ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in a letter Wednesday.
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry promised an "all-out fight."
"Today the revolt has begun," he said in a fiery speech.
On Tuesday, Autry told the Fresno Bee editorial board that he would stop paying income taxes until the state and federal governments send more water to the Valley.
"Don't pay your income taxes if our farms don't get their fair share of water," Autry said. "I won't."
The governor, a good friend of Autry, disagrees with him on that point but he "understands the mayor's frustration," said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.#
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1105283.html
Farmworkers, state officials urge passage of water bond at Capitol rally
By Jake Henshaw
"I will never sign a bill that does not have below-the-ground and above-the-ground storage," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the crowd on the Capitol steps.
Earlier this month the governor and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., proposed a $9.3 billion bond for, among other things, cleanup of contaminated groundwater, improvement of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, conservation, recycling and new reservoirs like one proposed at Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River.
Environmentalists generally have been skeptical of past proposals for new dams, arguing that the best sites are already developed and questioning the role of state funding.
But Wednesday the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy group, said the new bond, which forces above and below ground water storage projects to compete for funds, is better than past proposals that more closely tied funds to specific new reservoirs.
"We see that as progress," said EDF official Laura Harnish, though she stressed that her group still wants changes in the new bond on control of funding decisions and detailed studies of any proposed dams.
Schwarzenegger's staff tried to emphasize the state's water problems by distributing data on crop losses caused by the drought through July 11, which has reached $3 million in
The largest county losses were in
Measure's future
The governor and legislators have until Aug. 16 to place a measure on the ballot if they are willing to shorten the public comment period and increase costs to send out a supplemental ballot pamphlet, according to a letter sent Wednesday to the governor by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
Depending on how close the Legislature pushes the deadline, the additional cost likely would range between $4 million and $11.7 million, Bowen said.
But the Legislature's Republican leaders, who attended the rally, said work on the bond likely will have to wait until lawmakers and the governor enact a new state budget, which is already three weeks overdue.
"There's no tying these [budget and water bond] together" in negotiations, said Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of
But Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill of
Luciano Hernandez, a farmworker from Five Points,
"We need water because there is no work," Hernandez said.
He and other farmworkers traveled on buses paid for by the Mendota Drought Relief Fund, which is funded through with donations from business, labor and others, according to Patrick George, a spokesman for the California Latino Water Coalition, which organized the rally.#
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080724/NEWS01/807240312/1002
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