After years of partisan and non-partisan debates among businesses, water suppliers and agricultural and environmental groups, California has finally managed to reach a compromise in water legislation. State legislatures finally struck a deal on Nov. 4 and the $11.1 billion bond bill was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger five days later.

The long-awaited legislation, which includes four policy bills and one bond, aims to please everyone—including the fishing industry, Delta farmers and contractors who supply water to Central Valley farms and over 25 million people in Southern California. The package’s largest push is to address the major source of California’s water: the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  According to the California Department of Water Resources, the 2009 Comprehensive Water Package “represents major steps towards ensuring a reliable water supply for future generations, as well as restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and other ecologically sensitive areas.”

But the bulk of the reforms—especially those which would put 500,000 acres of unplanted Central Valley farmland back into production —won’t yield results for years. For some local farms, such as the ranch where State Sen. Jeff Denham’s family grows almonds in Merced County, the proposed reforms will be too late.

"There is nothing in here for our current water crisis," Denham, R-Modesto told the Associated Press. "You're seeing farms that have been passed down from generation to generation that are now bankrupt, employees that are left unemployed and standing in bread lines. It will get worse."

Denham voted against the legislation, doubtful that Californians will approve additional spending in a state annually struggling to approve its budget: Next year’s financial crisis has already been predicted by Schwarzenegger’s office to be around $21 billion.

The legislation will face more steep hurdles on its way to 2010 ballots, however. Perhaps most noteworthy and controversial is the legislation’s call for a politically appointed Delta Stewardship Council to manage the entire Delta. Among other goals, the council would be equipped to authorize the construction of a canal that would send more delta water to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities. Opponents of the council illustrate a debate that is truly regional rather than partisan—Bay Area farmers complain about expenses for monitoring their groundwater and Northern California farmers argue that the water left in the delta will be too salty for irrigation.

Schwarzenegger acknowledged that very little of the bond money and reforms will reach farmers within the next few years, and said his administration was working with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to bring water to fallow farms.

Proclaimed “one of the most significant pieces of legislation we’ve seen in a long time” by Mayor Jerry Sanders, the water compromise yet fails to provide immediate relief for struggling farms. The Associated Press reports that California’s largest reservoirs are less than two-thirds as full as they should be at this time of year, and three consecutive years of drought plus pumping restrictions in the delta spell trouble ahead for the nation’s primary supplier of fruits, vegetables and nuts.

If approved, San Diego is slated to receive at least $227 million for water projects next year, the bulk of which would help to finance the dam raise at the San Vicente Reservoir.

                                        

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Immediate solutions would be nice, but we can't afford to reject viable solutions simply because they aren't immediate. California is too big, too multifaceted and too dysfunctional to achieve immediate solutions. The legislative package and water bond is an essential first step. The Southern California community has more work to do to secure a reliable future water supply, but the bills and bond make our future work easier, even possible.

Laer , November 18, 2009

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