Water Deal Reached, Headed to Governor and the 2010 November Ballot

Water Deal Reached, Headed to Governor and the 2010 November Ballot

Historically, when the California Legislature adjourns for the year, the state Capitol building is relatively quiet as legislators return to their districts and leave the Capitol to its staff and tourists.  However, last year, the Legislature was forced to return to Sacramento after the fall elections because of a $26 billion deficit.  This year is no different, as California’s ongoing fiscal struggles have required legislators to remain at the Capitol to address numerous fiscal and social problems.    

The Legislature’s failure to resolve California’s water delivery situation required legislators and lobbyists to once again populate the Capitol corridors.  Despite legislative declarations and efforts to address California’s water crisis before the end of the 2009 legislative session, agreement between the myriad of diverse interest groups and elected representatives was beyond reach.  Rising unemployment and continued court-ordered restrictions and diversions on water flow forced Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to intensify their efforts to overhaul the state’s water management system.

After months of meetings and hearings, Senate and Assembly leaders informed members of their respective legislative bodies that they would be required to return to Sacramento to consider the approval of a potential water deal.  In sessions of “marathon” length this past Tuesday – with both the Assembly and Senate meeting throughout the night and adjourning just before dawn – a five-bill package to overhaul California’s water system was finally approved.  The five bills would do the following:

1. SBX7 1 – Creates a new governing structure to manage the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the primary source of water for 23 million Californians). 
2. SBX7 2 – Enacts the Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010, which includes an $11 billion bond to be placed before California voters in November 2010.
3. SBX7 6 – Creates a statewide groundwater monitoring system.
4. SBX7 7 – Establishes a statewide water conservation program that would reduce water consumption by 20 percent by 2010.
5. SBX7 8 – Appropriates $546 million for integrated regional water management, flood control and management, and natural community conservation and planning.

Upon passage of the five measures, Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders immediately lauded their own accomplishments.  Senator Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the Senate Pro Tem, declared that the “legislature has been able to accomplish something no other Legislature has been able to accomplish in decades.”

However, a $10 million earmark (also known as “pork”) for a Sacramento non-water related project sponsored by Steinberg almost jeopardized the package.  Realizing the pork provision could derail the water deal, Steinberg immediately removed the earmark.

Over the past few weeks, there were many other factors that could have derailed the water deal.  As negotiators and staff released information regarding the specifics of a potential water deal, water agencies, local governments, environmentalists, property owners and families immediately raised concerns.  Nonetheless, the measure were approved with several concerns unresolved (e.g., the construction of a peripheral canal), because legislators agreed to increase the bond by $1 billion for Los Angeles to fund its conservation and monitoring program.

In the coming year, legislators and interest groups will continue their efforts to modify the approved water deal.  Unions and environmental groups who are adamantly opposed the construction on a “dam” or peripheral canal will potentially oppose the proposed 2010 water bond.  Further, they will continue to lobby the Legislature to require increased regulation of property owners’ water rights, two provisions removed from the final water package.  Delta legislators, who are concerned with the make-up and authority of the governance board, likewise will attempt to resolve their issues.

Legislators have now returned to their districts and will attempt to spend the next two months preparing for another contentious year in the Capitol.  A projected $20 billion budget deficit and pension crisis are two issues Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are already preparing to face.  The water bills will be sent to Governor Schwarzenegger for his signature, and according to Schwarzenegger, the $11 billion water bond will be placed on the November 2010 ballot.