Urgent Action Alert: Stop Peripheral Canal/Dams Bill

If you thought energy deregulation was a disaster, wait until you see the potential water “solution” cooked up in the backrooms of the State Capitol by corporate agribusiness and their stooges in the State Assembly and Senate, according to an urgent action alert from Friends of the River.

"The Governor and legislative leaders may in the next few weeks push through a 'shell' bill that purports to solve California’s water management problems," said Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River. "This bill will likely be short on details, because legislative leaders may amend substantive provisions into the bill on the Assembly and Senate floors, without the benefit of full public hearings before the appropriate policy committees.

The bill may or may not include general obligation bonds to build the costly new dams and Peripheral Canal that Governor Arnold Schwarzengger, the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history, Senator Dianne Feinstein and corporate agribusiness are constantly campaigning for.

The cost will be in the billions of dollars at a time when the state is in its worst-ever financial crisis. "The bond will cost an estimated $10-$40 billion today and much more over the thirty years trying to pay it back," said Evans. "There are better solutions."

The environmental cost of the peripheral canal and more dams will also be enormous. The purpose of building the canal and more dams is to export even more water out of an overallocated California Delta. Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other fish populations have collapsed to record low population levels, due to massive increases of water exports in recent years to Westlands Water District, the Darth Vader of California water politics, and southern California. The canal and dams will only worsen the collapse of our fisheries.

"California does not have a water supply problem...it has a water management problem," said Evans.

Tell Your State Legislators we need common sense solutions and to oppose the proposed Budget Busting, Wasteful, and Ineffective Water Bonds! Please send a letter IMMEDIATELY through the Friends of the River website at https://secure2.convio.net/fotr/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=199.



Background Information:

This legislative session more than five bills have been introducted to "solve" our water problems. However, each of these bills seek to borrow around $10 to $40 billion dollars to build new dams and a Peripheral Canal.

"California cannot afford a multi-billion water bond, particularly when public education, health, and safety services are cut due to the budget shortfall and recession," said Evans. "For every dollar borrowed in a general obligation bond, the taxpayer will be required to pay back two dollars in principal and interest over the 30-year lifetime of the bond. Paying off an expensive water bond will directly compete with critical human services in the state budget."

If approved by the voters, it will take years to build new dams and the canal, so the proposed bond bill will have little or no impact on the current drought. Improving regional self-sufficiency by expanding water conservation and efficiency, water reclamation and recycling, and environmentally-beneficial ground water management is far less costly than building new dams and the canal, and will produce immediate water management benefits, according to Evans.

Write your state legislators TODAY and urge them to oppose any water bill that provides significant taxpayer-subsidized funding to build new dams and the Peripheral Canal. Urge them to support a smaller more resonable sized water bond instead that avoids funding the most expensive water “solutions” (new dams and the canal) and that provides important funding for water conservation, reclamation, and recycling, as well as watershed restoration.

Here are some of FORs concerns:

Legislative leaders may push through a “shell” bill in the next few weeks that purports to “solve” our water management problems. It is likely that the substance of the bill will be added through later amendments on the Assembly and Senate floor. This is exactly how California’s disastrous experiment in energy deregulation was incited by the Legislature!

Any bill that proposes substantive water management solutions deserves full public hearings before the appropriate policy committees. The Legislature should not put off substantive debate until the bill reaches the Assembly and Senate floors.

Any bill that proposes billions of dollars in taxpayer-subsidized bonds to build new dams and the Peripheral Canal is not the solution to California’s water management problems.

Multi-billion dollar water bonds will add significantly to the state debt, and will directly compete in the state budget with other, more important state programs, including public education, health, and safety.

Water conservation, reclamation, recycling, and environmentally beneficial groundwater management can improve regional self-sufficiency and meet our water supply needs at a fraction of the cost of new dams and the Peripheral Canal.

New dams produce the least amount of water and at a substantially higher cost than other water management solutions, and what little water produced by new dams will not be available for decades as the dams are constructed.

Again, please send an email to your State Representatives today - Tell them what is important to you, what are your concerns at https://secure2.convio.net/fotr/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=199.