Commentary by Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors, and David Guy, President of the Northern California Water Association
Despite record rainfall and snowmelt this year, California is emerging from the three driest years in state history, and we’re estimated to lose 10% of our water supply in only 17 years. The Colorado River, and our state’s share of it, is shrinking. Many communities still don’t have reliable access to clean drinking water.
Weather whiplash threatens to make these problems even worse, threatening the supply of clean drinking water throughout California.
These are the dire realities that our state faces, and it requires action. That means building more storage, fixing water pipes, modernizing infrastructure and water delivery, and more.
On July 10, Governor Newsom signed his infrastructure streamlining package into law, the package includes several bills that will help speed up critical infrastructure projects urgently needed to build our 100% clean electric grid, ensure safe drinking water and boost the state’s water supply. After leading an innovative “cutting the green tape” initiative for the past several years to accelerate landscape-scale environmental restoration, the approved bill package builds on this vision and cuts red tape that stalls or slows down projects for decades. Governor Newsom’s infrastructure package does just that – maintaining vital environmental protections while getting rid of bureaucracy that creates unnecessary hurdles to project implementation.
In passing this infrastructure package, California will now be able to maximize $180 billion in local, state, and federal funding to embark on an era of unprecedented infrastructure modernization throughout California – cutting project timelines by more than three years, saving businesses and government hundreds of millions of dollars, and reducing paperwork by hundreds of thousands of pages – all to get these critical projects off the ground and completed faster.
We’re talking about projects that will capture, store, treat, deliver, recycle, and desalinate water to respond and adapt to a rapidly changing climate. For example, if built, these Prop 1 water storage projects alone will capture and store enough water to supply millions of households every year and provide a new source of environmental water for dry years:
- Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion – 115,000 acre-feet;
- Sites Reservoir – 1,500,000 acre-feet;
- Pacheco Reservoir Expansion – 135,600 acre-feet;
Combined with other Prop 1 projects, that’s up to 1,635,600 acre-feet of water, equal to 3,271,200 households’ yearly usage!
These are the sorts of projects that will provide lifelines for regions of our state that get hit hardest during dry seasons or don’t have reliable access to clean water.
Passing these proposals means creating over 400,000 good-paying jobs for Californians, billions of dollars in local investments, more efficient expenditure of public resources, new opportunities for economic expansion in areas of the state that too often get left behind, and new sources of environmental water. Advancing these proposals and showing a path towards completion will also be necessary for lawmakers and the voters to support the next climate and water bond for California now being discussed in the Legislature.
Bill McKibben, one of our nation’s leading environmentalists, wrote in Mother Jones last month: “The general tactic used by the opponents of projects – delay it until it goes away – is in effect a form of climate denial.”
It is climate denial to delay these projects. Impacts that scientists told us would begin at the end of the century are here now. We can’t operate under the old rules that often delay projects by years when experts say we’re just 77 months from reaching the point of no return on curbing carbon emissions. We have to work in the context of weeks and months.
Time is running out to adapt to climate change. The Governor’s infrastructure streamlining package is commonsense and absolutely necessary to protect communities from worsening climate extremes. California’s best path forward is to go faster!
NOTE: Guest commentaries express the views of the author only, and should not be attributed to Maven’s Notebook.
GUEST COMMENTARY: Newsom’s Infrastructure Package Will Get More Clean Water to Californians
Commentary by Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors, and David Guy, President of the Northern California Water Association
Despite record rainfall and snowmelt this year, California is emerging from the three driest years in state history, and we’re estimated to lose 10% of our water supply in only 17 years. The Colorado River, and our state’s share of it, is shrinking. Many communities still don’t have reliable access to clean drinking water.
Weather whiplash threatens to make these problems even worse, threatening the supply of clean drinking water throughout California.
These are the dire realities that our state faces, and it requires action. That means building more storage, fixing water pipes, modernizing infrastructure and water delivery, and more.
On July 10, Governor Newsom signed his infrastructure streamlining package into law, the package includes several bills that will help speed up critical infrastructure projects urgently needed to build our 100% clean electric grid, ensure safe drinking water and boost the state’s water supply. After leading an innovative “cutting the green tape” initiative for the past several years to accelerate landscape-scale environmental restoration, the approved bill package builds on this vision and cuts red tape that stalls or slows down projects for decades. Governor Newsom’s infrastructure package does just that – maintaining vital environmental protections while getting rid of bureaucracy that creates unnecessary hurdles to project implementation.
In passing this infrastructure package, California will now be able to maximize $180 billion in local, state, and federal funding to embark on an era of unprecedented infrastructure modernization throughout California – cutting project timelines by more than three years, saving businesses and government hundreds of millions of dollars, and reducing paperwork by hundreds of thousands of pages – all to get these critical projects off the ground and completed faster.
We’re talking about projects that will capture, store, treat, deliver, recycle, and desalinate water to respond and adapt to a rapidly changing climate. For example, if built, these Prop 1 water storage projects alone will capture and store enough water to supply millions of households every year and provide a new source of environmental water for dry years:
Combined with other Prop 1 projects, that’s up to 1,635,600 acre-feet of water, equal to 3,271,200 households’ yearly usage!
These are the sorts of projects that will provide lifelines for regions of our state that get hit hardest during dry seasons or don’t have reliable access to clean water.
Passing these proposals means creating over 400,000 good-paying jobs for Californians, billions of dollars in local investments, more efficient expenditure of public resources, new opportunities for economic expansion in areas of the state that too often get left behind, and new sources of environmental water. Advancing these proposals and showing a path towards completion will also be necessary for lawmakers and the voters to support the next climate and water bond for California now being discussed in the Legislature.
Bill McKibben, one of our nation’s leading environmentalists, wrote in Mother Jones last month: “The general tactic used by the opponents of projects – delay it until it goes away – is in effect a form of climate denial.”
It is climate denial to delay these projects. Impacts that scientists told us would begin at the end of the century are here now. We can’t operate under the old rules that often delay projects by years when experts say we’re just 77 months from reaching the point of no return on curbing carbon emissions. We have to work in the context of weeks and months.
Time is running out to adapt to climate change. The Governor’s infrastructure streamlining package is commonsense and absolutely necessary to protect communities from worsening climate extremes. California’s best path forward is to go faster!
NOTE: Guest commentaries express the views of the author only, and should not be attributed to Maven’s Notebook.