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June 23, 2010
"A man builds a fine house,
and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it,
and keep it in repair, the rest of his days."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude
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"Lipstick on a pig"
That was Senator Lois Wolk's description of AB 2775, a bill
that would amend the water bond to remove language that would allow
nongovernmental partners to be part of joint powers authorities formed to own
and manage dams.
Assemblymember Jared Huffman and Senator Dave Cogdill, who
never agree about anything with respect to water, coauthored this bill focusing
on a "narrow point of consensus," a
"surgical change" (to quote Huffman). Huffman presented it to the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee
on June 22. It has an urgency clause.
Why the urgency? In a
deeply flawed water bond, the joint powers provision is one of the deepest
flaws. Organizations opposing the water
bond have noted that this provision would open the gate for more entities like
the Kern Water Bank, where private investors profit from public infrastructure
investments. The legislature wants to get it out of the water bond before the
Secretary of State prepares the measure for the November ballot.
So why did Wolk, alone among the senators on the committee,
vote against the amendment? Because, as
she noted, the amendment makes the bond more palatable, but "This won't
eliminate the possibility of gaming the system."
The real problem is with Section 6252 of the Government
Code, which allows mutual water companies to enter into joint powers agreements
with public agencies. For example, Westside Mutual Water Company is the entity
that allows Stewart Resnick to control the Kern Water Bank. Removing the reference to nongovernmental
partners from the bond won't eliminate mutual water companies or change the
Government Code.
Huffman admitted that this is a problem, but he wants to fix
it some other time. Cogdill said he was
surprised at the attention the issue had received. A number of legislators who voted for the water
bond reportedly didn't even notice the provision.
We wonder what else in the water bond they didn't notice.
AB 2775 will require a 2/3 vote of the legislature,
and requires fiscal committee review. Did we mention that it is urgent?
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And while we're tweaking
things . . .
In their enthusiasm to pass the "historic water package"
last November and create a Delta Stewardship Council to put things right in the
Delta, lawmakers neglected to address the matter of paying for the Council.
To correct this oversight, Assemblymember Huffman presented
AB 2092, a long-term financing plan for the DSC, to the Senate Natural
Resources and Water Committee.
AB 2092 requires the DSC to develop a financing plan based
on the "beneficiary pays" principle. This will involve defining private and public benefits, as well as
identifying both benefits and negative impacts of any action.
A variety of financing strategies will be necessary. Huffman emphasized that any new fees would be
subject to legislative approval. Both
supporters and opponents focused on this issue of fees. Delta county representatives supported the
bill but noted that fees need to be proportional to the benefits received, and
that there should be a provision for fees to be offset by previous work. Several upstream water districts opposed the
bill, expressing concerns that they could be charged for downstream impacts.
The bill contains a provision for crediting beneficiaries
who "prepay," coming forward in advance with money to pay for "time-sensitive"
projects. Kathy Cole, representing the
MWD, testified that larger urban water users would be the most likely to make
use of this option. Senator Alex Padilla
expressed concerns that the "prepay" strategy might influence outcomes. But Huffman insisted that that kind of "undue
influence" will be avoided through "vigorous oversight."
Unfortunately, we have seen how much difficulty Huffman's
Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee has had already in overseeing the
activities of the DSC.
Just to clarify one little point about beneficiaries:
Huffman said that any diverter IN the Delta is diverting FROM the Delta. While his statement may be true in the
grammatical and logistical sense, he forgot about a few codes like riparian and
pre 1914 water rights, as well as the North Delta Water Agency Contract. Delta users are not beneficiaries diverting surplus
Delta water. They are the Delta
community, and the Delta is tied to their homes and their livelihood. Lumping them in with the State Water Project
and Central Valley Project water exporters ignores a hundred years of
California water law, and sets a dangerous precedent for blaming the victim in
the mismanagement of the Delta.
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Feinstein's favor for
Resnick et al. is still a bad idea
Senator Dianne Feinstein's S. 1759, "Water Transfer
Facilitation Act of 2009," is on the U.S. Senate Legislative Calendar, and
opponents fear that it could be included in omnibus legislation. This is the legislation that would relax the
law in order to benefit the Kern Water Bank and other private entities
profiting from taxpayer subsidized water and infrastructure. It would allow high flows in the San Joaquin
River, crucial to the Delta's ecological health, to be diverted outside of the CVP
service area and to non-CVP contractors for use in the state's multi-billion
dollar private water sales market.
Under the legislation, federally subsidized $20 an acre foot
water could be resold in the open market for more than $1000 an acre foot. Environmental review would be relaxed, with
a single programmatic EIR used for the Central Valley Project transfers. This would help hide the environmental
impacts of individual transfers.
Restore the Delta has joined conservation and
fisheries communities in asking the chairs of the Committee on Energy &
Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Water and Power to prevent this
legislation from advancing.
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Confirmation of something we
guessed
Writing in the California Progress Report, Alegria De La
Cruz, Legal Director of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, talks
about those farmworker demonstrations on the Westside last summer:
"What about the 'spontaneous' demonstrations by farmworkers
marching under the 'Fish vs. Jobs' banner? Go talk to the laborers in the small destitute towns of the regions such
as Five Points, Firebaugh, Mendota and Dos Palos. I have. If you can gain their confidence, they'll tell you, as they've told me:
these demonstrations were orchestrated by farm labor contractors and their
employers. Workers were either strongly
'encouraged' to joint the demonstrations with the implication that their jobs
were at stake, or were simply paid to march. This is not meant as a criticism of the marchers; on the Westside, you
cannot afford to pass up a day's wages. The system is designed that way."
De La Cruz's family has been fighting corporate
agriculture on the Westside for three generations. You can read the whole article, "Tales of the
Westside" by clicking here. |
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Donate Now
Restore the Delta is working everyday through public education and
citizen activism to ensure the restoration and future sustainability of
the California Delta. Your general contribution can help us sponsor
outreach events, enable us to educate Californians on what makes the
Delta so special, and assist us in building a coalition that will be
recognized by government water agencies as they make water management
decisions.
Restore the Delta is a charitable 501(c)3 organization. Donations are tax deductible.
Click on the button below to go to our secure PayPal account.
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Restore the Delta is a grassroots campaign committed to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable to benefit all of California. Restore the Delta - a coalition of Delta residents, business leaders, civic organizations, community groups, faith-based communities, union locals, farmers, fishermen, and environmentalists - seeks to strengthen the health of the estuary and the well-being of Delta communities. Restore the Delta works to improve water quality so that fisheries and farming can thrive together again in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Sincerely,
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Restore the Delta
Email: barbara@restorethedelta.org
Web: http://www.restorethedelta.org
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