The bill, which would provide $300 million a year for infrastructure repairs, is set for its first committee on Wednesday.
By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service
A coalition of California lawmakers and stakeholders often at odds declared Tuesday that water, instead of being for fighting, was for friendship.
The group of legislators, water district managers and environmentalists pushed for passage of Senate Bill 872. The bill would take $300 million annually from the state’s greenhouse gas reduction fund for water projects. Half of the dollars would go toward capital improvements for projects affected by subsidence, and the other half would pay for levee repairs.
The legislation has drawn people usually fighting over water to the same side of the negotiating table. One reason is that, absent the improvements, millions of Californians will pay more for water as the infrastructure fails and the resource becomes scarcer, they said.
“You don’t see this every day,” said state Senator Jerry McNerney, a Pleasanton Democrat and the bill’s author. “We’re on the same page on this. There’s an urgency on this.”
McNerney has said the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the state water project comprise the state’s main water source. It provides freshwater to 27 million people throughout the Central Valley, Bay Area and Southern California.
However, the delta’s levees are aging and could collapse. Additionally, the water project’s canals are affected by sinking land, called subsidence. The annual injection of $300 million over 20 years is necessary to prevent water delivery interruptions, the senator said.
Assemblymember John Harabedian, a Pasadena Democrat, said people don’t talk about levees until they break. He called the money a good investment for the entire state.
“They say water’s for fighting for,” he added. “I’m here to say, we all benefit from this.”
Harabedian was one of many in a line of supporters who spoke at a press conference about the bill.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, said the bill promoted the coequal goals of the Delta plan: creating a reliable, statewide water supply while protecting and restoring the Delta ecosystem that preserves its values as a place.
The Delta requires upgraded levees to get that needed protection, she added.
Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, said subsidence is threatening those levees. Without repairs, the ability to deliver water will face crippling effects by 2045.
And costs to state water project customers will double, Pierre added.
Shivaji Deshmukh, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said half of California’s residents depend on his agency. He pointed to the changing climate — what experts have said will result in heavier downpours but longer dry periods — as a key reason to adapt the system of delivering water and storing it.
“We are going to experience wide swings in hydrology,” he said, invoking the dire forecast for the Colorado River, which his agency also uses. “Delay will only further risk our water supplies.”
The bill is in its infancy, with its first committee hearing set for Wednesday. It may face rough legislative waters.
The author of a bill analysis for the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee said the greenhouse gas reduction fund lacks the revenue to pay for existing appropriations. Adding another $300 million each year would worsen its current obligations.
The author suggested amending the bill, requiring a funding source in addition to the greenhouse gas fund.
The Environmental Quality Committee won’t assess the need and appropriateness of the funding. Instead, the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee will examine those issues if it passes Wednesday’s hearing.
“Water is the lifeblood of California,” McNerney said. “It’s necessary. It’s urgent. We’re going to do it.”
