Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 13, 2008
1. Top Items -
Feinstein criticizes legislators for inaction on state water plan
The Sacramento
Feinstein takes jab at own party on water politics
Contra Costa Times- 8/12/08
Feinstein pressures Calif.
Associated Press- 8/12/08
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Feinstein criticizes legislators for inaction on state water plan
The Sacramento
By Peter Hecht
Warning that California faces catastrophic water shortages from a worsening drought, Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday upbraided state lawmakers for failing to rally behind a proposed $9.3 billion water bond for the November ballot.
Feinstein has joined Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling for major improvements to state water storage and delivery systems. But their water bond plan has run aground in the Legislature.
Lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have been loath to support the program, which would include $3 billion for water storage and $1.9 billion to repair levees and restore the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Legislative efforts to place the measure on the November ballot have also stumbled amid the state's bitter budget standoff.
In a speech to the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Feinstein urged lawmakers to end the budget stalemate and put the water infrastructure proposal on the ballot.
She warned that that the state's water supply is drying up, with a decreasing Sierra snowpack that could shrink by 40 percent by 2050 due to global warming.
"The last major addition to
Feinstein, a gubernatorial candidate in 1990, is drawing attention over whether she will run for
The senator, who joined Schwarzenegger in meeting with legislators in February, said she believed "they would come together on a bipartisan plan" to address
"They didn't," she said. "And it just seems that the issue becomes one of ideological purity rather than political solutions."
She said she hoped fellow Democrats don't block the water bond. She underscored her argument by describing a recent helicopter flight with President Bush when they passed over a half-full Shasta reservoir and devastating wildfires.
"This is the state of my birth. I have never seen it in this condition, with the dryness, the fires … the deteriorating snowpack," she said. "There's every overt danger signal our water infrastructure is inadequate."#
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1152713.html
Feinstein takes jab at own party on water politics
Contra Costa Times- 8/12/08
By Steve Harmon, Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO — A couple blocks away from her potential next job site — the state Capitol — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday betrayed little about whether she intends to run for governor in 2010.
But after an address to regional officials at the downtown convention center here, she did take a swipe at her own party for blocking a $9.3 billion bond measure that she called critical to averting a major water crisis.
"I'm frustrated," the California Democrat from
The Legislature has until midnight Saturday to approve measures for the ballot, but partisan differences are likely to prove difficult to overcome. Democrats say the measure relies too heavily on water storage, or dams, and doesn't do enough to beef up conservation efforts.
Feinstein said she couldn't understand why conservation and water storage couldn't go hand in hand.
"It just seems that the issue becomes one of ideological purity rather than practical solutions," Feinstein said. "We need to move. And I don't think saying an environmental bond issue hasn't been spent is the answer. That should be spent. There's no question about it. But it doesn't do what we need to do."
State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has insisted that the water bond approved by voters in 2006 needs to be spent before considering a new bond. His office did not reply to Feinstein's comments.
The issue has been complicated since Feinstein joined with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in promoting the $9.3 billion bond, backed largely by Republicans. (Feinstein and Schwarzenegger co-wrote an op-ed piece pushing the plan that appeared Sunday in MediaNews papers.)
But Feinstein said partisan politics should be put on hold in dealing with the state's growing water problems.
"We have to deal with an infrastructure that doesn't meet Californian's needs," she said. "I have never seen (
"Six months ago, the governor asked if I'd sit down with political leaders in both parties and I did," she added. "We left the meeting believing in two weeks they would come together on a bipartisan plan. They didn't."
Feinstein, who was re-elected in 2006 to her third six-year term, inserted herself into the raging politics of water just as speculation was heating up that she is considering a run for governor in 2010.
She declined to douse or fan the speculation Tuesday when asked whether she would run, saying only, "I'm a
The most popular statewide politician in the state, Feinstein can only be aided by the speculation — even if it doesn't amount to a run — said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.
"It's in her interest to keep the speculation going," he said. "People will pay attention to her if they think she'll be the governor.
This (water) issue reinforces that she's not just a figure of
A recent private poll showed Feinstein would command the field of Democrats, which could include Attorney General (and former governor) Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, while Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly have also shown an interest.
Still, some remain skeptical that she'll run. She'll be 77 in 2010, and she'd be leaving behind all the influence that she's established in the Senate as a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and as chairwoman of the Rules Committee.
A former mayor of
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_10181441?nclick_check=1
Feinstein pressures Calif.
Associated Press- 8/12/08
Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday pressed
A $9.3 billion water bond she negotiated with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger includes some money for dams and underground storage, as well as billions to clean up contaminated groundwater and improve conservation.
A population that is headed toward 40 million and threats to the Sierra snowpack from global warming should be pushing
"The time is now," she said. "If you wait, it will be too late to do what we need to do to get up and running to meet this hotter, drier future that is coming."
There is consensus among farmers, environmentalists and urban water agencies that
In addition, the levees, water quality and native species are deteriorating in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of the state's intricate water-supply system.
Many of the state's reservoirs are less than half full, the result of two dry years and a federal judge's order that cut water deliveries out of the delta to protect a threatened fish.
As a result, state and federal contractors are getting just 35 percent of their deliveries this year. Several water agencies throughout the state have imposed conservation measures or are considering them if
Feinstein and Schwarzenegger announced their $9.3 billion bond proposal in July, but it has failed to move forward in the Legislature. It sets aside about a third of the money for reservoirs and other storage projects.
Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over dams and whether to build a canal to pipe river water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta two strategies being considered to improve water supplies and restore the delta.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-
"What we don't know is whether we can finish in time to put it on the ballot," Bass told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "To go out and ask the voters to approve $9 billion, we need to make sure we are very thorough in that process."
Negotiations on the overdue state budget have dominated the agendas of legislative leaders since July, leaving them little time to concentrate on the ballot proposal for water.
Farmers, irrigation districts or any other entity that would benefit from a new dam would pay at least half the cost, but Democrats question whether the state should foot the bill for the rest. The reservoir sites would be chosen by a commission appointed by the governor with little legislative oversight.
Saturday is the deadline for the Legislature to put an initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot, but lawmakers have extended such deadlines in the past.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor hopes both a budget and a water bond can be passed by the deadline.
"It's not like they're starting from scratch," McLear said of the water bond. "We believe an agreement can come together very quickly."
The plan by Feinstein and Schwarzenegger also faces opposition from environmental groups.
Several rallied outside the Capitol on Tuesday, arguing that building dams or a canal would take decades and do little to address California's immediate water troubles.
"These 19th century solutions they are proposing are not going to help us in today's world," said Jim Metropulos, senior advocate of the Sierra Club in
Instead, the groups say the state should invest in cheaper programs to boost conservation, water efficiency, water recycling, groundwater storage and desalination efforts.
"Make no mistake that new reservoirs are not about saving fish or protecting the environment. They're about taking more water," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
The groups said they plan to wage an opposition campaign if the Feinstein-Schwarzenegger bond makes the ballot.
Feinstein said she wasn't worried about opposition from environmental groups, which typically are her allies.
"Everybody wants something that is kind of a deal-killer, but you have to put together the basics and that's what this bill does. It is the basics," she said.#
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_California_Water_353877C.shtml
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