PCL Insider: News from the Capitol
COASTING TO A HALT: GOVERNOR’S BUDGET CUTS
TO COMMISSION REJECTED BY SENATE COMMITTEE
Wednesday, a Senate budget subcommittee rejected the
Governor’s proposal to slash the budget for the California
Coastal Commission as part of his proposed ten
percent cuts to general fund allocations for all state
departments and agencies.
The Coastal Commission is responsible for ensuring that
any development along California’s coast is consistent
with the goals of protecting our coastal resources for current
and future generations.
The Commission already operates on a shoestring budget as
a result of the loss of twenty-six positions since 2001. A ten
percent cut would have meant the layoffs of an additional
seventeen staff.
We’ll be urging the Assembly to re-affirm the
Senate’s good judgment when they take up the Coastal
Commission’s budget on April 2nd.
INTO THE SUNSET: A CLINT EASTWOOD FAREWELL FOR TWO
STATE PARKS COMMISIONERS
In a shootout, Clint Eastwood wins. Or, at least,
that’s how it goes in the movies. However, it seems Clint
has recently gotten terminated
by the Terminator. With no advance notice, Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger summarily refused to reappoint Eastwood and the
Governor’s own brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, to the
California State Park and Recreation Commission.
This unexpected action has been read as a
“payback” by the Governor for the refusal of
Eastwood and Shriver to vote for the Governor’s plan to
bulldoze a major new freeway through the middle of San Onofre
State Beach. The State Coastal Commission, after a hearing in
which over 3,500 persons participated, also rejected
that idea and saved the Park.
SINCE YOU ASKED: ADMINISTRATION REQUESTS TOOLS TO
IMPLEMENT GOVERNOR’S NEW STATEWIDE WATER USE REDUCTION
TARGET
Last Friday, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) got
the ball rolling on implementing the Governor’s
call for a 20% per capita water use reduction by 2020 by
asking the State
Water Plan Advisory Committee for specific ideas on how to
achieve Schwarzenegger’s target.
Fortunately for DWR, several bills have been proposed in the
California Legislature that could help:
Assemblymember Krekorian’s AB
2153 the Water
Efficiency and Security Act (WESA), will decrease per capita
water use by calling for all water demand for new growth to be
fully offset with water use efficiency in existing buildings or
development of new climate resilient water supplies such as
water recycling.
AB 2153 is also structured to direct water efficiency
upgrades to disadvantaged communities that may not otherwise be
able to afford these improvements. In addition, AB 2153 provides
a sensible way to help meet the Governor’s goal without
further burdening the strapped General Fund and
without increasing water rates for existing residents.
AB 2153 is co-sponsored by the Planning and Conservation
League and the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water. It
will be heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on
April 7, 2008.
Another crucial bill to meeting the Governor’s targets
is AB
2175 (Laird/Feuer). AB 2175 would ensure that the State
adopts a comprehensive water
conservation plan with feasible, cost-effective water
conservation targets. AB 2175 is scheduled to be heard in the
Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee on April 15,
2008.
These two complementary bills answer DWR’s call for
specific mechanisms for implementing the Governor’s water
use reduction target. We look forward to working with the
Administration and the Legislature to ensure these two powerful
tools become state policy in time to achieve the
Governor’s objective.
HOW NOW WET CAT? STATE ANNOUNCES PLAN TO REDUCE
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM WATER USE; FEW HINTS ON PREFERRED
PATH
Last Thursday, representatives of the Governor’s
interagency Water-Energy Subgroup of the Climate Action Team
(WET-CAT) unveiled five
broad strategies to reduce global warming pollution from
water use in California.
The strategies, which will be submitted to the California Air
Resources Board for inclusion in the Scoping
Plan for AB 32 implementation, include increasing water
recycling, water conservation, water infrastructure efficiency,
and the use of renewable energy, along with better management of
storm water in urban areas.
The WET-CAT has also proposed two specific targets:
increasing water recycling to 23 percent by 2030 and increasing
urban water use efficiency by 1.76 million acre-feet (MAF) by
2020.
Although the WET-CAT has received detailed recommendations
by PCL and other organizations about the creative water
management tools at their disposal, they have released few
details about how they plan to carry out their strategies. And
while their targets are a good start, the latest State
Water Plan and several other statewide
evaluations show that they could be substantially more
aggressive.
WET-CAT co-chair Fran Spivy-Weber has asked for outside
input, particularly suggestions for measures that state agencies
should be taking. You can email Fran and her co-chair
Mark Cowin or contact
PCL’s Global Warming Program Manager, Matt Vander Sluis for more
information.
WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT? STATE WATER BOARD ASKED TO
DECIDE FATE OF CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST WATER PROJECTS
Last Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB) got more than expected during a workshop
on their Bay Delta Strategic Plan. While many who commented,
including
PCL, provided recommendations for protecting the Delta, the
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and
California Water Impact Network (CWIN) surprised the SWRCB by
filing a formal
petition against the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the state
Department of Water Resources for their massive Delta water
diversions.
Should the SWRCB act on the petition, they will have to
determine whether the operations of the two largest water
projects in the state violate California’s reasonable and
beneficial standards for water use.
Together, the Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State
Water Project (SWP), export over 5 million acre feet of Delta
water each year, enough for 10 million California families.
CVP and SWP diversions from the Delta have already been
linked to the chronic water quality violations in the Delta, and
more recently, state and federal scientists have confirmed that
these diversions are significant contributors to the Delta
ecosystem collapse.
The CWIN/CSPA petition alleges that these water exporters are
also violating water rights conditions by diverting water from
the Delta in an unreasonable manner and then using it
wastefully. While the SWRCB is not required to take up the
petition, CSPA and CWIN have promised to seek
legal recourse within 60 days if the SWRCB does not act on
the petition.
If the SWRCB wants to retain control of two of the largest
water rights in California, it will have to act soon.
READY, SET GONE? PCL FOUNDATION’S CAMPAIGN TO
REMOVE SAN CLEMENTE DAM MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER
Plans to remove the seismically unsound, 106 foot tall dam on
the Carmel River in Monterey County recently surged closer to
approval. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has determined
that the plan to remove this impediment to the passage of
endangered steelhead trout is feasible.
If the plan proceeds, it will result in the largest dam
removal project in California history, opening access to more
than 25 miles of spawning and rearing habitat and restoring
sediment to the lower reaches of the river and the Carmel State
Beach.
For over four years the PCL Foundation has been effectively
laying the groundwork with NOAA Fisheries, the State Coastal
Conservancy, and the dam’s owner, California American
Water, to remove the unsafe dam. PCL Foundation was also a key
player in initiating the private-public funding partnership that
can make the dam removal project happen. The Coastal Conservancy
has played the lead role for the California Resources Agency in
bringing resources to the solution.
On Wednesday, PCL Foundation joined with the Carmel River
Watershed Conservancy and with the Carmel Point and Lagoon
Preservation Association to host a community
meeting to inform the local residents about the latest
developments.
For more information, contact PCL Foundation’s Dr. Monica Hunter.
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