Schwarzenegger Strong Arms Legislature to Place Delta Canal and Dams on Ballot

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Strong Arms Legislature to Place His Water Bond on February Ballot

by Dan Bacher

On the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the Legislature into special session to complete work on two issues, his proposed water bond for the 2008 ballot and his health care reform package.

His appeal to get the Legislature to put his water bond on the February ballot represents a blatant attempt to force Legislators to ram through his package to build a peripheral canal – code worded as “water conveyance” – and two controversial dams without the needed environmental and public reviews.

Schwarzenegger also appears to be disregarding his own Delta Vision process in which a group of stakeholders, scientists and politicians are currently developing a vision for future of the Delta.

The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed amendments to SB 378 that would provide $2 billion to build the Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat Dam and to enlarge Los Vaqueros Reservoir. The bill also allocates $1 billion to continue unsustainable water exports from the California Delta, according to Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River.

The Legislature was scheduled to go into session on September 17 and has to come up with a package by September 27 for the water bond to go on the February ballot.

“California’s population continues to grow, placing additional pressures on future water supply reliability,” according to a statement from Schwarzenegger’s office. “To protect water supplies for all Californians, the Governor proposed a significant investment in ground and surface water storage, Delta preservation and the development of a new conveyance system.”

In his resolution to the Legislature, Schwarzenegger urged them “to consider and act upon legislation to address the short term and long term improvement of California’s water management system including the development of new surface and groundwater storage and improved conveyance facilities.”

Senate President pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) issued the following statement after the Governor called the special session.

“The fastest way the Governor can repair the Delta and protect the state’s water supply system is to sign SB 1002, which provides $611 million in immediate funding for the Delta and water-related projects," said Perata. “Beyond that, we are absolutely under the gun to pass a bond. It must be done by September 27th if we want to make the February ballot. Failure is not an alternative.”

Perata introduced SB 1052, a $5.4 billion water bond ,as a framework for special session discussions. It contains $2.4 billion to restore the Delta, an ecosytem that is so decimated that two separate courts have curtailed water exports; $2 billion for regional water supply reliability;, and $1 billion for environmental and water conflicts from the Salton Sea to the Klamath River.

Evans and other conservationists are worried that the Governor and the Legislative will attempt to strike a deal where the Governor will support the removal of term limits, while the Legislature will support the Governor’s proposal for a canal and dams.

Friends of the River (FOR) strongly opposes the Schwarzenegger administration’s proposed version of SB 378 (Water Supply Reliability Act of 2008) that funds the peripheral canal and the dams.

“The administration’s version of the SB 378 earmarks $2 billion to construct the Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat Dam, as well as to expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir, before legally required environmental studies are completed,” said Evans. “The bill also allocates $1 billion to facilitate continued if not expanded Delta water exports at a time when the Delta ecosystem and its native fisheries are crashing (largely due to water exports).”

“It is a fundamental truth that we cannot restore the Delta, which has been harmed by dams and diversions, by building yet more dams and diversions. CALFED’s attempt to both restore the Delta and increase Delta exports is an unqualified failure. California taxpayers should not be asked to continue investing billions in limited public funds in this failed and environmentally damaging strategy,” stated Evans.

Evans said that FOR would encourage voters throughout California to oppose any water bond that substantially funds new dams and facilitates Delta diversions at current or increased levels – even if the bond in question provides significant funding for ecosystem restoration.

Former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, http://www.StoptheCanal.org, also urged the public to oppose the effort by Schwarzenegger to ram through the canal proposal.

“In calling a special session, the Governor must specifically detail the nature of the special session and the very last sentence of the description calls for consideration of a new ‘conveyance system,’ said Joe Canciamilla “This means that the possibility of a canal being included in a last minute legislative package is still very much alive.”

Any proposed bond should only be approved after extensive public discussion and review, but unfortunately that may not be the case, according to Canciamilla.

“I continue to urge you to contact your legislators and demand that no bond be approved without full and careful public review and comment, and that they oppose any bond that tries to install a new “conveyance system” around the Delta. A peripheral canal by any other name is still a peripheral canal,” he stated.

Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemen Wintu Tribe, a member of the Governor’s Delta Vision Task Force Stakeholders Panel, castigated the Governor for pushing the canal before the recommendations of his task force were developed.

“Our position is that the Governor signed an executive order that established the Delta Vision Task Force and Stakeholders Group to go through a process of issuing recommendations to restore, revive and protect the Delta for the long term,” said Mulcahy. “However, before the task force developed its recommendations, he threw out all of the time, money and efforts invested by the group by pushing his own vision of a canal and dams.“

“This was contrary to the wishes of the voters, who voted down the canal in 1982. And regardless of the visions or solutions that would come out of the Delta vision process, Schwarzenegger has said that he has already made up his mind,” said Mulchay. “There has been only one recommendation by the group so far that includes the possibility of building a canal – and this would be an isolated facility that would be phased in over 20 to 30 years.”

Mulcahy believes that the political agenda behind Schwarzenegger’s move is to use the Delta water and food chain crisis for political gain in his expected run for U.S. Senator against Barbara Boxer. “He is trying to buffalo California voters into thinking that he is actually going to do something good for them when he is actually destroying an entire ecosystem,” he said.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in its worst ever ecological crisis as four pelagic (open water) fish populations - delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - have declined to record low levels. The number one cause in the collapse is the massive increase in water exports by the state and federal governments in recent years. A broad coalition of fishing groups, conservationists, Indian Tribes, farmers and Delta residents is opposing the Governor's frenzied drive to build the peripheral canal and two new dams because this would only make a very bad situation on the California Delta even worse.