In case you missed it:
Good column today, published throughout Southern California:
Will lawsuits, high costs frustrate Brown’s water tunnels plan? Thomas Elias – Pasadena Star; also appeared in the OC Register and Daily Bulletin. An opinion piece by Thomas D. Elias
Elias wrote:
"This project might be a pretty tough sell in Southern California once more of the public fully understands the cost, with little prospect of increasing water supplies to the region."
Another article that indicates Southern California is suggesting the same solutions for strengthening levees and local water supply projects that we are advocate for:
Editorial: Houston's floods are a warning for California to shore up its water systems. The good news: We're getting started.– Los Angeles Times
The editorial board wrote:
"In late August, a Sacramento-based agency called the Central Valley Flood Protection Board adopted a new flood management strategy that departs from the old model of just raising levees to meet the challenge of greater flood risk. In a model of smart, joint planning among interests that too often work against each other, environmentalists and flood engineers collaborated on a plan that restores ecosystem health along the San Joaquin River and replenishes the groundwater, which in turn stabilizes supplies for the State Water Project.
Why should Southern Californians care?
Because we drink that State Water Project water and have a vital interest, to say the least, in making sure it doesn’t run out, and that it is not contaminated or lost by levee failures in the distant (to us) Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta due to rising sea level. Meanwhile, we have a vital interest in our own locally captured, stored and consumed water, and should take hope and inspiration from the little-discussed but crucially important Central Valley plan. The proper test when considering new water bonds (which we are likely to see on the ballot next year), new taxes and new projects is whether they try to accomplish just one thing, in last century’s mold, or instead to fit into a many-faceted 21st century framework that does many things simultaneously: securing our supplies, sustaining our environment and keeping us safe during Houston-style calamities."