Sierra Club Urges Legislators to Vote No on the Delta Water Package

Sierra Club Urges Legislators to Vote No on the Delta Water Package!

by Dan Bacher

The Sierra Club California today sent out an urgent action alert asking its members and others to call and email their Legislators to oppose the Delta Water Package and and $12 Million Water Bond that Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg is trying to push through the Capitol by this evening.

"With less than 24 hours to go before their scheduled adjournment, the California Legislature will consider a complex Delta water package, along with a budget-busting water bond," according to Jim Metropolous of the Sierra Club. "Unfortunately, the details of the package and the bond are changing by the minute," a "Whatever gets passed by the Legislature in the next 48 hours will have very little consideration by the Legislators themselves and virtually no public input."

The Sierra Club urges people to call their legislators today and tell them not to "rush through a bad policy." The Club has joined an amazing array of fishing groups, environmental organizations, Delta farmers, California Indian Tribes, northern California water agencies and Delta cities and counties in opposition to legislation that serves as a road map to the peripheral canal.

"Legislative leaders have joined five separate bills into a package that will supposedly help restore the Delta and improve water supply reliability," said Metropolous. "The bills are SB 12 (Simitian), AB 39 (Huffman), AB 49 (Feuer), SB 229 (Pavley), and SB 458 (Wolk). Senator Steinberg’s intent is to finalize the bills and have full Senate and Assembly floor votes on the entire package before the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn on September 11 yet many key provisions of the bills have yet to be fully fleshed out."

"While we desperately need a solution, we cannot sacrifice getting the solution 'right' for getting it 'done.' Please call your legislators NOW and ask them to not rush water policy that will do more harm than good. The vote on these crucially important matters is hours away!" Metropolous stated.

The organization lists six major reasons why Legislators should vote now on the water package:

1. The current Delta package puts Californians on the hook for a lot of money without any guarantee that the policy will make conditions in the Delta and its estuaries from declining further.

2. The current Delta package does not fix the fundamental issues with existing law that compromises and continues to endanger Delta fisheries.

3. The current Delta package adds another layer of bureaucracy with poorly defined authority to implement needed solutions.

4. The Delta package currently lacks any way to fund what it hopes to achieve. There is no financing piece currently included. This package may include a bond costing over $10 billion in a time when the State struggles to balance the budget and issues IOU's to pay its bills.

5. To meet the Governor's demands, any financing piece will include taxpayer dollars to build dams or a peripheral canal without any oversight by the Legislature. Meaning unnecessary dams will take money away from education and health care services or other environmental needs.

6. This is not a statewide solution for California's water problems. This package only provides water reliability for corporate agriculture in the San Joaquin and for State Water Contractors like Metropolitan Water District and Westlands.

"Please call your Senator and Assemblymember right now and tell them to vote NO on a package that costs a lot of money and does nothing for the environment or for communities without safe drinking water," added Metropolous. "The vote on these crucially important matters is hours away!"

To call your Legislator through the Sierra Club website, go to: https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?alertId=2893&pg=makeACall&autologin=true

To send emails to your Senators and Assemblymembers, go to: http://www.calsport.org