Here are all the reactions to Governor Brown’s proposal yesterday’s proposal for $1 billion emergency drought plan, listed in alphabetical order:
From the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA):
Timothy Quinn, executive director of the statewide Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), issued the following statement on the $1 billion emergency drought package announced by Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders. The package is aimed at providing local drought relief and expediting projects that can improve short- and long-term water supply reliability.
“We applaud the governor and legislative leaders for taking a strong stance on protecting Californians from the effects of this unrelenting drought. We need that leadership and the immediate funding in this package to take action now.
“This drought shows no sign of abating, and this package is a welcome step to accelerate relief to communities that are hardest hit. The expedited bond funding will help needed projects get out of the gate more rapidly – including recycled water projects that are ready to go and can be brought on line relatively quickly. It also jump starts some longer term projects that will help improve the resiliency of our system to combat future droughts.
“Local water agencies are on the front lines responding to this drought with aggressive projects and programs to reduce water use, stretch existing supplies and protect remaining water reserves. They will continue to use every tool available to manage through the drought this year and improve our water supply reliability long term.”
“As the drought tightens its grip, water conservation will continue to be the critical lever we can pull. Recent polling shows the vast majority of Californians understand the need to conserve and are willing to do more. Local water agencies are taking action to further strengthen conservation efforts, and ACWA and the Department of Water Resources are providing tools and support for these critical efforts through the Save Our Water program.”
ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 430 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com. ACWA partners with the California Department of Water Resources to help consumers reduce water use through Save Our Water, the state’s largest water conservation education program. Visit www.saveourwater.com for details.
From Speaker Toni Atkins:
Assembly Speaker Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) joined Governor Jerry Brown, Senate pro Tempore Kevin de Leon and GOP legislative leaders Senator Bob Huff and Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen for a state capitol news conference to announce new emergency drought legislation. “The drought isn’t letting up, so we can’t either,” said Speaker Atkins. “The steps the Assembly, Senate and Governor have worked on will deliver relief to Californians harmed by the drought and help us manage the significant problems the drought continues to cause.”
Here’s more from the Speaker in this Assembly Access video. http://www.asmdc.org/speaker
From the California Water Foundation:
The California Water Foundation issued the following statement from Executive Director Lester Snow commending the $1 billion emergency drought relief legislation announced today by Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Legislature.
“As advocates for safe and reliable water for our cities, farms and the environment, we commend the actions today by Gov. Brown and the Legislature to accelerate $1 billion in emergency drought relief funds. Our state sorely needs this relief to prepare us for the summer months ahead, in what could be the most serious stretch of a prolonged four-year drought. A confluence of devastating factors – record-low snowpack, depleted groundwater reserves and diminished reservoir storage – has created a disturbing reality that we should assume will continue well beyond this year. The actions today are important to address our urgent water needs, but as a state we can and must do more to withstand and deal with future droughts. We must build resilience in our water systems to put us on a sustainable path. Difficult and contentious decisions are ahead of us, but how we respond to this drought, and plan for future dry periods, will determine the health of our economy, environment and way of life in California for decades to come.”
About the California Water Foundation: The California Water Foundation, an initiative of the Resources Legacy Fund, is committed to achieving a sustainable water supply to meet the needs of California’s farms, cities, and environment today and into the future. The Water Foundation supports innovative projects and policies and brings together experts, stakeholders, and the public to achieve 21st century solutions. For more information, please visit www.CaliforniaWaterFoundation.org
From Senator pro tempore Kevin de Leon:
Mobilizing state resources to face another year of extreme dry conditions, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, and Republican Leaders Senator Bob Huff and Assemblymember Kristin Olsen announced legislation to help local communities cope with the ongoing, devastating drought. The $1 billion package will expedite bond funding to make the state more resilient to the disastrous effects of climate change and help ensure that all Californians have access to local water supplies. VIDEO (link is external)
Working with local environmental justice and water groups in the central valley, Senate leader De León achieved an agreement with the Governor and the Assembly Speaker to create a first-of-its-kind Office of Sustainable Water Solutions as a new unit within the drinking water program at the State Water Resources Control Board.
The Office of Sustainable Water Solutions is designed to assist disproportionately impacted communities, those with small water and wastewater treatment facilities, obtain access to resources to address drinking water and other needs; streamlined contracting processes, so that state agencies can get drought response dollars flowing more quickly, and some additional authority for fish and game wardens to enforce water restrictions in selected areas.
In addition to the creation of the Office of Sustainable Water Solutions, the Senate leader also made it a top priority to ensure the emergency drought package had over $135 million in new funding for clean drinking water for communities like those in the Central Valley. These funds can be deployed quickly to provide clean, potable drinking and bathing water for some of the poorest communities affected by the drought.
Speaker Atkins fought for the relief package to include $17 million for food assistance in high unemployment and hard hit agricultural areas. These funds are distributed to local and regional food banks to provide basic nutrition and food assistance to poor and unemployed people in counties that have high unemployment due to drought and idled farmworkers.
“Thousands of Californians — many of whom are living in small, rural, low-income communities — are experiencing extreme and acute impacts from the drought. In the worst cases, communities have run out of water completely. We commend Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León for taking leadership on this issue and working collaboratively with the Assembly and the Governor’s Office to develop emergency solutions to the drought crisis. We look forward to continuing to work together to create lasting solutions for all communities without access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water.” — Laurel Firestone, Community Water Center (link is external) Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director.
“We applaud Senator De Leon’s commitment to aggressively and comprehensively working toward permanent and sustainable solutions for communities and Californians that cannot count on the basic right of clean drinking water. We look forward to working together to secure safe and affordable drinking water for all Californians.” — Phoebe Seaton, Co-Director and Attorney at Law Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability (link is external).
One of the most challenging problems with water supply reliability and water quality throughout the state is the lack of help offered to small communities (small cities, rural counties, and unincorporated areas) that have small rate bases, little or no local funds, huge water infrastructure needs and little staff to help meet those needs.
The Office of Sustainable Water Solutions will have staff to help small communities apply for state and federal funds to help clean up drinking water and provide greater access to treatment technologies. It will help communities that want to consolidate to better apportion costs of water system upgrades to prevent or mitigate huge local rate increases. It will provide basic technical assistance to small communities that, in many cases don’t even have a city manager much less a staff to work on providing clean drinking water to its residences.
The groups supporting this include Clean Water Action, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and El Centro Communitario Por El Agua.
From Food and Water Watch:
Gov. Brown, Drought Legislation Must Target Agriculture, Oil Industries: Statement from Food & Water Watch California Director Adam Scow
:
“Today, Governor Jerry Brown will join Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León to unveil legislation aimed at addressing the State’s drought crisis. Food & Water Watch anticipates that the Governor will continue to focus the wrong solutions to our water problems.
“Spending one billion dollars will not create new water for California. In order to address the drought crisis, Governor Brown must place real limits on the State’s most egregious water users – the agriculture and oil industries.
“Governor Brown is penalizing Californians for their water use but is giving a free pass to agriculture and oil corporations that are over-pumping and polluting our State’s dwindling groundwater supply. Agriculture uses 80 percent of California’s water while urban and residential uses account for less than 15 percent.
“It’s time to place limits on the growing almond empire in the desert-like conditions on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley. These almond operations are over-pumping vast amounts of groundwater and will mostly be exported overseas. Last year the Westlands Water District pumped over 600,000 acre feet of groundwater-more water than all of Los Angeles used that year. The Governor needs to direct the State Water Board to manage California’s groundwater as a public resource and not allow corporate interests to deplete our dwindling groundwater.
“If the Governor was serious about protecting our water he would issue a moratorium on fracking to stop the ongoing pollution of 2 million gallons per day of fresh water and stop the ongoing dumping of oil wastewater into our aquifers. California’s aquifers are crucial and must be protected in order to save and store water for the future.”
About Food & Water Watch: Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food and water we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control. www.foodandwaterwatch.org
From Senator Jean Fuller:
Today, Senator Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) released the following statement in response to the announcement of emergency drought legislation:
“The emergency drought legislation tentatively supported by leaders in both houses and the governor is an important first step,” said Senator Jean Fuller. “While this legislation is not a solution to our long term water challenges, it will get resources to programs that can bring some relief to families struggling with this drought.”
From Assembly Republic Leader Kristen Olsen:
Assembly Republican Leader Kristin Olsen, of Modesto, issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement on emergency drought legislation:
“It is unacceptable that people in our state are going hungry because of a lack of water. While this emergency drought relief is an important Band-Aid, we have to move beyond these temporary fixes.
“We will only be better prepared for future droughts in California if we start now on building storage, desalination, recycling, and other water projects to increase supply.
“This is an emergency and as such, we should immediately expedite projects to increase water supply that have been hung up in government red tape and permitting processes for decades.
“Our state water boards need to start making decisions that help people – human lives – instead of fish.
“Let’s take action on these projects now so leaders no longer need emergency actions.”
From Senator Andy Vidak:
Senator Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) issued the following statement in response to proposed legislation to provide $1 billion in drought relief:
“This drought relief is desperately needed as California faces a devastating fourth year.
It’s criminal that California has a water system that is the envy of the world, yet the system’s gross mismanagement is currently flushing millions of gallons of precious water out to sea. “
From Western Growers’ President and CEO Tom Nassif:
“Today the Governor said that if the drought continues, ‘there will be restrictions’ on water use by all Californians. This may be interpreted by some to mean that so far, there haven’t been any restrictions placed on the state’s farmers. In fact, California farmers and Californians living in some rural areas are the only people in the state who have had their water cut off. Last year, the State Water Project only delivered 5 percent of the requested supply. The federal Central Valley Project delivered no water at all to the San Joaquin Valley. This year, the state project will deliver only 20 percent and the federal project is projecting another year of zero water delivered to the San Joaquin Valley.
Farmers bear the brunt of these restrictions. Last year, 500,000 acres of highly productive farmland was left unplanted, and that number is expected to grow by as much as 40 percent this year. For the farm workers and others whose economic security is tied to California’s farms, water supply restrictions mean lost jobs and family stress. Last year, 17,000 farm jobs were lost due to water cuts and this year the number will be higher.
We appreciate the intentions behind the emergency legislation announced today and we are grateful for the aid it might provide to some of the tens of thousands in our communities who are suffering, but real relief can only come from an end to this drought and the regulatory policies that have exacerbated it. We continue to watch helplessly as scarce water that could be stored south of the Delta is instead sent to the sea in the name of species protection, notwithstanding the fact that through both wet and dry periods this has failed to halt the decline of the very same species.
We urge members of both parties in Congress to recommit to the hard work of crafting legislation that would shield farmers, farm workers and cities in the San Joaquin Valley from this regulatory overreach without altering the Endangered Species Act. It can be done, and nearly was done last year. The good work of Senator Feinstein, Majority Leader McCarthy, and Representatives Valadao, Nunes, Costa and Calvert must not be abandoned. We urge these leaders to restart their work quickly and seek rapid action on the legislation that was negotiated last year.”
About Western Growers: Since 1926, we have represented local and regional family farmers growing fresh produce in Arizona and California. Our members provide half the nation’s fresh fruits and vegetables including a third of America’s fresh organic produce. Some also farm throughout the U.S. and in other countries so people have year-round access to nutritious food. For generations we have provided variety and healthy choices as the first line of defense against obesity and disease. We grow the best medicine in the world.
From Senator Lois Wolk:
“I applaud the Governor, President Pro Tem, and Speaker for working together and delivering an important drought relief package.
This drought package responds to the current conditions with food assistance and emergency water supplies to communities that have dire water shortages right now. It also provides funding for communities to develop drought and climate resilient water supplies that will help California in the future.
Critical drought conditions persist throughout California. This drought is the type of severe, prolonged dry conditions that we are likely to face with much more frequency.
This drought may in fact be the new normal for our state. Today’s action will provide an immediate investment of $1.0625 billion targeted at drought relief and aggressive development of more resilient water supplies to ensure California can weather future droughts. As the Chair of the Budget Subcommittee on Resources, I look forward to continuing the work on prioritizing investment in reliable water supplies to sustain our economy, communities, and ecosystems.”
Get the Notebook blog by email and never miss a post!
Sign up for daily emails and get all the Notebook’s aggregated and original water news content delivered to your email box by 9AM. Breaking news alerts, too. Sign me up!
