For those interested, Governor Brown's proposal to build a couple massive tunnels to divert water from Sacramento River will be discussed today in the Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee at 1pm. You can catch it live at
http://www.calchannel.com/...
The SacBee has a decent overview of the matter
Brown's stated purpose is
to simultaneously improve wildlife habitat and stabilize water supplies from the estuary, a source of water for 25 million people and 3 million acres of farmland from San Jose to San Diego. Population growth, imperiled fish species and climate change have made that water supply increasingly vulnerable, and the project aims for a comprehensive fix.
The project is controversial and comes with a large price tag both economically and environmentally.
The tunnels are not the only controversial plan being put forth in California. Nearly a half a dozen Water Bond measures are being proposed. Here are links to some of these proposals.
Democratic Senator Wolk is proposing a 6.4 billion measure. The 6.4 billion figure is a downward adjustment from the original plan of 11 billion plus.
Republican Assembly Member has a 5.8 billion dollar water storage only plan that, as expected, does nothing for ecosystem conservation.
Democrat Assembly Member Anthony Rendon also has a water bond measure which he recently scaled back to a price tag of 6.5 billion dollars.
Couple other republican senators, Anthony Cannella and Andy Vidak, have also proposed water bond measures.
Anyway, interesting debates here in California. I myself am just learning all the ins and outs of the issues. I will post more updates as measures are introduced and debated.