We owe today’s opening quote to Brigadier General Scott F. “Rock” Donahue, commander of the South Pacific (Pacific Southwest) Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), who was in San Joaquin County this week to be briefed on county emergency services, flood protection, and integrated regional water management. Since two-thirds of the Delta...Read More
Fresno Bee-8/10/10 By Robin Hindery (Associated Press) Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday completed the process of removing an $11.1 billion water bond from California’s November ballot and delaying it for two years. The governor signed two bills, one of which postponed the water bond vote until November 2012. The other delayed the terms of...Read More
L.A. Times-8/11/10And then there were nine. The water bond known as Proposition 18, which was to be the first of 10 measures on the Nov. 2 ballot, has been put off for two years, leaving voters with slightly less campaign material crowding their mailboxes, fewer words in the ballot pamphlet to read and understand, and...Read More
Sacramento Bee-8/11/10By Dan WaltersCommentary When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature enacted a sweeping package of water bills that included a $11.1 billion bond issue last year, they ignored a powerful – albeit unwritten – rule of Capitol life. That rule says any major policy decree must have virtually unanimous support from every stakeholder group...Read More
We are still unpacking all that happened with the vote on AB 1265. One item worth mentioning is that Assembly Member Jared Huffman not only voted to stop the delay of the water bond (against AB 1265) as we had requested, he worked quite hard trying to persuade colleagues to redo the water bond, rather...Read More
Below you will find a letter written to Senator Joe Simitian of the Senate Select Committee on Delta Conservation. Zeke expresses perfectly why the report on flow criteria for the Delta approved last week by the State Water Resources Control Board is a document that should be used for making decision regarding future management of...Read More
On Monday, the Legislature voted to postpone the water bond to 2012, demonstrating once again that they are incapable of making decisions about water with calm deliberation and in the light of day. The Senate backed postponement from the outset, but the Assembly took several votes, with Jared Huffman arguing to keep the measure on...Read More
Let’s look at development in arid regions of the state. We really hate to quote the Public Policy Institute of California, creator of the Apocalypse vision of the Delta. But in a 2005 report, “Lawns and Water Demand in California,” the PPIC estimated that the amount of irrigated landscaping in California equaled the size of...Read More
While calling for smarter use of the water we have (a subject short-changed by the water bond), we need to keep pointing out the flawed implication in DWR’s oft-reported statement that two-third of Californians are served by water from the Delta. The suggestion, always, is that the well-being of a large percentage of Californians depends...Read More
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Roger Salazar (916) 284-1255 No on Proposition 18: Despite Lack of Public Support, Legislature Delays Bad Water Bond Instead of Dumping it Altogether Bond’s prospects just as poor in 2012 as it is in 2010 Sacramento, August 9 – Members of the No on Proposition 18 Coalition...Read More
