How Now Wet Cat? California’s Plan to Reduce Water Use and the Connection to Global Warming

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.

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.

Traci Sheehan is the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. It has testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills to strengthen California's environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections.