Schwarzenegger Calls Special Session to Approve Peripheral Canal Plan

Schwarzenegger Calls Special Session to Approve Peripheral Canal Plan

by Dan Bacher

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Sunday night backed down from his threat to veto all 704 bills on his desk until he and the legislative leadership agreed on a water bill package. In spite of no agreement being reached, he started signing and vetoing the backlog of legislation.

He then issued a proclamation calling for the Legislature to meet in an extraordinary session to "address California's water crisis."

“Over the past few days we have made enough progress in our negotiations that I am calling a special session on water," said Schwarzenegger. "While we still have a few remaining issues to work out, I commend the legislative leaders for their focus and commitment to solving this crisis and I will weigh all the bills on their merits.”

His call for a special session is yet one more episode in Schwarzenegger's insane campaign to build a peripheral canal and Temperance Flat and Sites Reservoirs through a general obligation bond.

The resolution resurrects the "co-equal" goals of water supply and environmental "restoration" of CalFed, the joint state and federal process that has led to the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, threadfin shad, green sturgeon and other species, due to massive exports of water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness.

These "co-equal" goals, designed to cede senior water rights to junior water rights holders on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, are also enshrined in the Governor's Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan processes. The plans produced by both processes contain a lot of deceptive "green" language to justify the building a peripheral canal.

The proclamation states, "To consider and act upon legislation to protect and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while also improving the reliability and quality of water supplies from that estuary."

The resolution then reiterates Schwarzenegger's plan to build a peripheral canal and more dams by calling for "improved conveyance facilities" and the building of "additional storage facilities" while indebting Californians for decades to come by placing a general obligation bond and, "as necessary," a lease revenue bond on the ballot.

The proclamation says, "To consider and act upon legislation to address the short term and long term improvement of California’s water management system including development of new surface and groundwater storage and improved conveyance facilities, ecosystem health and conservation strategies. To consider and act upon legislation to appropriate funds, including appropriations for general obligation and lease revenue bonds, to improve water resource management, build additional water storage facilities, develop groundwater aquifers, improve groundwater quality and flood protection, and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and other important ecosystem restoration projects. To consider and act upon legislation to place a general obligation bond and, as necessary, a lease revenue bond on the ballot."

While Schwarzenegger is pushing a water package to supply water to cities and farms, he ironically vetoed AB 1242 (Ruskin), the Human Right to Water bill supported by a large coalition of environmental justice and conservation groups. This bill would declare it to be the established policy of the State that every human being has the "right to clean, affordable, and accessible water for human consumption."

In his veto statement, Schwarzenegger claimed that "Existing law establishes that domestic water use has the highest priority over other water uses. When California’s water laws were established in 1943, this policy was enshrined in law."

Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger neglects to note that this law is not enforced in poor urban and rural communities throughout the state where many domestic water supplies are contaminated by agricultural, industrial and municipal pollution. Ironically, while Schwarzenegger last Friday spoke at a "Latino Water Coalition" rally to promote his peripheral canal and dams proposal to provide water to agribusiness, by vetoing this bill he demonstrated that he cares nothing about the farmworkers in rural communities of the San Joaquin Valley whose water supplies are tainted with pesticides, herbicides and other toxic chemicals from unregulated agricultural runoff.

Schwarzenegger is pressuring the Legislature to approve his obscenely expensive water bond at a time when California is in its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. While the budget for heath care for children, teachers and game wardens has been slashed, Schwarzenegger is pushing for the approval of a canal boondoggle that would cost from $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to a recent analysis by economist Steven Kasower

"Bloomberg News reported this morning reported a $2.1 billion tax shortfall for California in October," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. "The three month old budget is unraveling and the governor wants to broke a water package that will include a peripheral canal and new dams. Clearly, he is out of touch with the real problems that people are facing in the state."

Schwarzenegger is clearly obsessed with building a monument to his "manhood" and gigantic ego, the peripheral canal, with no regard to its economic, environmental or human costs.

Please watch this great video about the peripheral canal from Restore the Delta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpEhieTzVHQ