Legislature OKs water reform package

After many months of negotiations on a comprehensive water package, the Legislature approved a sweeping package of measures to help address the state’s ongoing water problems. For much of the legislative year, individual bills floated around – each with a specific, narrow water focus. As the end of the regular legislative year approached, many of bills merged into one overall comprehensive approach, agreement was not reached by the Sept. 11 close date.

When the Governor called the legislature back for a special session on water, the California Restaurant Association’s primary concern was on the effort’s mandatory water conservation component.

The CRA worked to oppose the previous versions of the conservation mandate as, among other problems, they did not adequately accommodate the fact that any regulatory water conservation mandates shouldn’t interfere with a restaurant’s ability to comply with the highest standard of sanitation and food safety. The approved package addresses this concern.

The comprehensive water package consists of five major parts:

  • A new seven-member board to oversee the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The board would have the power to approve a controversial peripheral canal around the delta.
  • A 20 percent conservation mandate for urban areas, with credits for cities that have made significant conservation efforts. Restaurant water used for health and safety compliance would not be targeted by the conservation mandate.
  • New regulations to monitor groundwater levels throughout the state.
  • Increased penalties for illegal water diversions.
  • An $11.1 billion bond to pay for the overhaul.

The bond was at the center of much of the debate in the end, with some lawmakers pushing for a revenue bond, which is repaid by water customer fees. Instead, lawmakers chose a general obligation bond, meaning the debt would be repaid through the state’s cash-strapped general fund, which has seen a series of multibillion-dollar deficits since January 2007.

 

The key challenge will be for proponents to convince voters, who are already leery of the legislature and the idea of putting greater financial pressure on the state’s general fund, to approve the bond in November 2010.