Controversial CA water bills pass: opponents vow ballot fight

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, called the bills "the single biggest advance in water policy" in decades, while Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said they were "a responsible plan."

But the jubilation was not universal. The complex legislation, the heart of which is an $11.1 billion bond issue that voters must approve in November 2010, has divided environmentalists, Democratic legislators and county water authorities. Its passage followed months of difficult negotiations involving a broad range of stakeholders.

At issue is the future of central California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - the state's main water source - from which water-challenged southern California has been drawing so heavily that the future of the vital delta system is now threatened. Agriculture, and especially giant agribusiness, are far and away the state's biggest water users.

Besides the bond issue, the five-bill package includes a governor-appointed seven-member board to oversee water issues in the delta, cutting cities' water use by one-fifth in the next decade, fighting illegal water diversions, and a first-ever plan to measure groundwater.