Revised $9.3 Billion Dollar Water Bond Headed to November Ballot in California?

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Diane Feinstein have come together to propose a bond to help solve the state's water infrastructure issues. They hope that the legislature will put the measure on the November ballot.

Last month the Governor declared a drought emergency. As he made the declaration, he also advocated for a proposed $11.9 billion dollar bond. This bond proposal was controversial because it proposed projects that environmentalists feel would harm the environment. Those two were a peripheral canal around the Bay Area Delta and three dams.

Fast forward one month and those dams and $2 billion disappear. The business community, Republicans and moderate Democrats are likely to get behind the measure. Details that were reported in the SF Chronicle are listed below.

The new plan includes money for water storage, but the amount is $3 billion rather than the $5.1 billion the governor had in his earlier plan. And the money wouldn't necessarily be used for dam projects - it could be spent for other projects, including groundwater storage.

The plan also includes funds to help preserve the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by fixing levees; to make seismic retrofits of the water infrastructure; to protect and restore native fish and wildlife in the area; and to pay for projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions from exposed delta soils.

Schwarzenegger and Feinstein's proposal would spend the $9.3 billion in six areas:

-- $3 billion on water-storage projects.

-- $2 billion for regional water supply and conservation projects.

-- $1.9 billion for Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta sustainability projects, such as levee repair, as well as improving the ecosystem.

-- $1.3 billion to protect ecosystems and watersheds, to remove invasive species and to restore watersheds damaged by fire. Funds also would be used to remove dams, including one on the Klamath River.

-- $800 million to improve water quality, groundwater protection and small-community wastewater treatment.

-- $250 million for grants and loans for water recycling projects.

Nothing is guaranteed for the measure though. Legislative Democrats are questioning the need for the bond when there are are funds that voters authorized in 2006 that they have not spent and that the $17 billion dollar budget gap should be dealt with before they start working on this program.

Environmentalists question the timing since the November ballot is going to be crowded with other ballot measures.

Photo by: by cplbasilisk