Drought proposal under fire
Brown, state leaders criticized for how funds will be allocated
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders on Thursday proposed a $1 billion package of emergency legislation meant to help California weather its crippling drought.
But a news conference that unveiled the package — aimed at demonstrating how much the state is doing — seemed to spark more criticism about what Brown and other state leaders are not doing as the drought drags on into its fourth year.
Strangely, two-thirds of the money — $660 million — is earmarked for flood control proj-
ects, money California voters approved in a 2006 flood control bond.
And although the proposal will expedite spending on water recycling and desalination projects that will surely ease the pain of the next big drought, the legislation does little to ease California’s pain now, environmentalists and others complained.
What’s needed, they say, are harsher restrictions on lawn watering, an acceleration of last year’s new law requiring farmers to better measure groundwater pumping and slapping water wasters with steep penalties.
“Conservation should come first, but it hasn’t,” said Conner Everts, of the Environmental Water Caucus. “We’ve been overdrawing surface and groundwater for years — and now we’re entering a crisis of our own making.”
Last year, state lawmakers pledged more than $870 million to drought relief, but they still haven’t decided how to spend half of it.
At the Capitol news conference, reporters peppered Brown with questions about when he’ll call for mandatory water conservation.
“We’re going to do more. Don’t worry,” Brown said. But he provided only vague details about when he might “bring the hammer down” and force growers and homeowners to cut back more, saying the state might impose tougher rules before summer.
Asked why so much money was going to control floods, he said it was a “water issue.”
“With climate change and global warming, there will be more extreme weather events,” he said.
Brown in January 2014 declared a statewide drought emergency and asked Californians to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent. But the state’s urban and suburban residents have fallen short of that goal, cutting water use by only 9.7 percent from June to January, compared with the prior year.
“When you’re piloting a huge battleship, it turns slowly in the water,” Brown said. “It takes a long time for people to grasp an unprecedented change.”
The legislation proposed Thursday would speed up spending on water recycling and desal by using $272 million in funding from the water bond voters approved in November.
Brown was accompanied to the news conference by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.
A little more than 10 percent of the package — $128 million — will come from the general fund in the fiscal year beginning July 1. That money includes $25 million for emergency drinking-water projects and $17 million for food assistance in drought-ravaged communities like Firebaugh, where lines at the food bank keep growing, Assembly Republican leader Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, said at the news conference. Although Democrats and Republicans are not divided on the state’s response to the drought, Olsen and Senate Republican leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, were briefed on the drought-relief package and invited to the news conference only shortly before it started. Olsen and Huff both said they support the package, but they stressed that the state must not lose sight of its need for more water storage facilities above ground. “Republicans have consistently said that storage is essential for providing a reliable water source to all of California for future generations,” Huff said. The $7.5 billion water bond voters passed in November includes $2.7 billion for water storage projects. But it will be several years — possibly even more than a decade — before any new dams or reservoirs built with the money are operational. Last week, the federal government pledged $19.9 million in emergency funding for the Central Valley Project, a massive conveyance system that delivers water to many of the state’s farmers. The money will be used to monitor salinity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, assess the vulnerability of endangered species and ensure that the right amount of water is being pumped through the system at the right time. This week, the State Water Resources Control Board voted to ban restau-