An “Extraordinary” California Idea About Water Policy: Put Principles First

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Until recently, water policy discussions underway at the State Capitol were only "extraordinary" in the purely legislative sense of the word – they're taking place in the context of the Second Extraordinary Session of the State Legislature (sometimes referred to as a "special session") called by the Governor earlier this month to focus on water issues.

As an example, the Governor's proposed water bond doesn't advance "exceptionally" good ideas. In fact, it proposes spending over $5 billion on costly and environmentally destructive dams that would do virtually nothing to address the very real water quality, water supply, and water reliability problems confronting California.

On the other hand, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata has a much better set of proposals that target funding to solutions that address our real problems, and direct dollars to cost-effective, high yield projects that can be implemented quickly. In fact, PCL and over twenty other environmental groups support Perata's approach
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Well, earlier this week something else happened that may actually be extraordinary in the more conventional sense of the word (i.e., "unusual"). On behalf of Assembly leadership, Assembly Member John Laird introduced ABXX 2, which proposes a set of investment principles to guide future water related spending. These are pretty good principles, proposing, among other things, that any expenditure of public money promotes:

"...improvements to water quality, including both the protection of watersheds that produce the state's water supply and the use of the latest water treatment technology, before and after use, in accordance with a comprehensive strategy that ensures long-term sustainability."

PCL supports the idea that principles and policy should accompany projects. In other words, before the public is asked to approve billions of dollars in new borrowing, we ought to know what we're trying to accomplish, and make clear that we've got our priorities straight. Should Perata's funding package merge with Laird's principle package, we would indeed have something extraordinary.

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