Politics of Water Brings California Back to Brink

California lawmakers are racing to hammer out a deal aimed at alleviating the state's growing water shortages, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatening to veto about 700 unrelated bills if legislators don't find a water solution by midnight Sunday.

Mr. Schwarzenegger was huddled in closed-door meetings with legislative leaders in the Democratic-run statehouse Friday, as they worked to close sharp differences on a package of water measures that the Republican governor says are critical to meeting California's future water needs.

An irrigation canal is dry this spring on a farm near Firebaugh, Calif., that receives no water allocation. Central Valley farmers and farm workers are enduring a third year of drought that has brought extreme water shortages and job losses, idling a half-million acres of crop land. The key point of contention is the insistence by Mr. Schwarzenegger and GOP leaders on a bond measure for as much as $12 billion that would finance new dams and other water-infrastructure improvements.Mr. Schwarzenegger has said the state needs more dams to help store water for its growing population. "We have been decades talking about water infrastructure, and we've got to bring it up to date," he told a conference of community-college trustees in San Francisco Thursday

But Assembly Republicans and some Democrats call a $12 billion bond measure supported by the Senate too costly. The timing is bad for a big bond measure, they say, given that California lawmakers have already used billions in bon

ds to help close a series of past budget deficits. "Going to the voters and racking the credit card up another $12 billion is a very hard sell," said Jared Huffman, a Democratic assemblyman from Marin County.

 
Mr. Huffman and other Democrats are also pushing for measures that include greater conservation, and many Democrats oppose construction of new dams due to environmental concerns.

Mr. Schwarzenegger earlier this week vowed to veto all other bills, barring a water deal. Lawmakers said Friday they expected to work late into Friday night and over the weekend if necessary.
The hundreds of bills facing a veto threat include everything from extension of a deadline for a hospital's seismic retrofit to proclamation of Harvey Milk Day after the slain gay-rights pioneer; without a veto, they would automatically become law at midnight Sunday.

What is clear is that with less than 16 months left in his final term in office, Mr. Schwarzenegger is running out of time to put his stamp on one of the most intractable problems in California, as well as the rest of the West.

In 2007, Mr. Schwarzenegger proposed a $9 billion bond measure for new dams and infrastructure improvements, such as new levees and canals. But the legislature -- split by many of the same ideological differences as now -- didn't act on it.

With California in the third year of drought, the governor brought water issues back to the table earlier this year. Lawmakers began huddling in January on measures such as instituting 20% water cutbacks statewide and improving the way water from the wet northern part of California is channeled to the arid south via the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. The delta is so ecologically sensitive that federal court orders to protect the fish have resulted in severe reductions in water shipments to farmers and other users in the past two years.

The delta-related improvements -- bundled in one bill along with the conservation measures -- have drawn fairly broad bipartisan support, and have also received wide backing from recreation, fishing and environmental groups.



Far more controversial is Mr. Schwarzenegger's push for the infrastructure bonds, which he and other Republicans want to see introduced as part of a companion bill. "We must be careful about the size of any proposed general obligation bond, because there is a limit to what California can afford," said Democrat Darrell Steinberg, president pro tem of the Senate, in a statement.

But Republicans say California can't wait any longer for new dams and infrastructure. "What has provided the resources and has enabled us to get through the dry years is the water we have stored behind reservoirs," said Sen. Dave Cogdill, the lead Senate Republican on water issues. "It helps us survive a prolonged drought."

Some Democratic legislators -- many of them from agricultural areas hard hit by the lack of water -- are also in favor of new dams. Anna Caballero, a Democratic assemblywoman from the farming center of Salinas, said California farmers who have had to idle a half-million acres because of lack of water will continue to suffer without new infrastructure.

"I can guarantee you there won't be a deal without it," Ms. Caballero said of a proposal to build new dams.

- Via WSJ