California Governors and the State Legislature have historically demonstrated a real problem with openness and transparency in government and a penchant for secrecy, whether it is regarding the Delta Tunnels, Big Oil-written cap-and-trade policies, the oil lobbyist-led Marine Life Protection Act Initiative or the current legislation, SB 834, that hand over California’s electricity grid to the Trump administration.
This disdain for public input and transparency was demonstrated this week when the Legislature’s Delta Tunnels, under pressure from the Metropolitan Water District and corporate agribusiness interests, scheduled the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) hearing on the State Water Project contract extension just two days before its scheduled date: tomorrow, August 30 at 8 AM.
This was noted in a recent email communication from Kathy Cole of Metropolitan Water District’s Sacramento Office, according to a news release from Restore the Delta (RTD).
The email from the Metropolitan Water District on Tuesday explains the significance of this hearing:
“…[T]he Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) has rescheduled the hearing required under Section 147.5 of the Water Code. Existing law requires, at least 60 days prior to the final approval of the renewal or extension of a long-term water supply contract between Department of Water Resources (DWR) and any State Water Project (SWP) contractor, DWR must present the terms, conditions and details relative to the contracts at an informational hearing before the JLBC and relevant policy and fiscal committees of both houses. The Legislature is not required to take action on the SWP contract extension as the statutory requirement requires only an informational hearing take place.”
The agenda for the hearing was published on the California Senate website today: www.senate.ca.gov/...
RTD noted that the hearing date precedes finalized amendments to the State Water Contract regarding California WaterFix, the official name for the Delta Tunnels project, and was not noticed to the public.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said the State Water Contract extension includes provisions for a fifty-year contract agreement for water allocations and deliveries from the State Water Project, despite the state just releasing a report on climate change that cites the need for greater Delta outflows to combat salinity intrusion into the Delta for the region’s four million residents.
“For the tunnels project to move forward, the water code requires legislative oversight through an informational hearing,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “In other words, simply holding the hearing allows tunnels proponents to proceed with State Water Project contract extensions. However, the legislature will not have access to CA WaterFix contract amendments as part of the State Water Project prior to the hearing. Nor will the legislature have access to a financial plan, a cost-benefit analysis, or ratepayer impacts report. These missing pieces to understanding the economic scope of CA WaterFix is extremely troubling for California taxpayers and water ratepayers.”
In addition to rushing the hearing without any public notice, Barrigan-Parrilla said Assembly Member Richard Bloom is now sponsoring a last minute gut and amend bill, AB 2649—a piece of legislation that would sunset the requirement for holding the JLBC meeting altogether.
“Instead, the State Water Contractors’ only requirement to proceed would be to present information on the contract extension to the JLBC ten days prior to any contract finalization. Presently, 60-day notice is required for a public hearing. Furthermore, AB 2649 does not clearly indicate the full path for any committee oversight,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
Making things even more confusing than they already were, in the last 24 hours staff members for Speaker of the Assembly, Anthony Rendon, and Senate President pro tempore, Toni Atkins, have told several members of the public that the hearing is not scheduled for Thursday, August 30, 2018, according to Barrigan-Parrilla.
“Members of our state’s legislative leadership have failed us this week,” emphasizedBarrigan-Parrilla-Parrilla. “The Delta tunnels proposal is the state’s second largest public works project in California history that will impact not only the four million people living in the Delta, but all Californians. Instead of putting their constituents first, these legislators have chosen to do Metropolitan Water District’s bidding by facilitating an under-wraps hearing at the eleventh hour, without any proper public notice. And if that weren’t enough, the backup plan is to change the rules of oversight and eliminate the hearing, just in case it can’t be pushed through before the legislative session ends.”
“It is this exact behavior—the subversion of transparency, and good government processes—that causes everyday voters to have such anger and distrust toward elected officials. Even if officials support the Delta tunnels, they should be motivated to know how much the project will cost and what kind of amendments the State Water Project contract will entail. Without this information, how can elected officials execute the duties which they were elected to handle, including but not limited to providing proper public oversight?” she asked.
“Instead of government transparency, we are seeing backroom wheeling and dealing to push through the tunnels and to distribute political favors for California water’s network of good old boys,” she concluded.
John McManus, President of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA), also criticized the scheduling of the hearing at the last minute without properly informing the public.
“GGSA agrees with the general findings of the State Water Board that more water is needed from the Central Valley to restore our salmon runs and the health of the Delta and Bay,” said McManus in a statement. “This legislative hearing is a step in the wrong direction, toward allowing greater diversions at a time when salmon aren’t getting enough water,”
Background from GGSA:
On Thursday morning, the State legislative Joint Budget Committee will hold a hearing on proposed revisions to State Water Project (SWP) contracts, which would be used to finance the controversial Delta tunnels.
Under state law, these SWP contract amendments cannot be finalized without this hearing. The current DWR proposal threatens healthy salmon runs and the Bay-Delta ecosystem.
On July 6, the State Water Resources Control Board released an initial proposal for new flow standards to restore the Bay-Delta and salmon. That proposal would reduce diversions from the Central Valley, on average, by 2 million acre-feet per year.
On the other hand, DWR has promised that the tunnels would result in a one million acre-foot increase in Delta diversions, over what would be possible without the tunnels. Yet DWR has not released an analysis of the extent to which the new State Board standards would reduce or eliminate the new water supply from the tunnels that DWR has promised.
In addition, the proposed amendments fail to reduce, to a realistic level, the high contract quantities in the current SWP contracts. Even in 2017, one of the wettest years on record, the SWP only delivered 85% of contracts quantities to users South of the Delta. With the current - and inadequate - Bay-Delta protections that we haven place today, DWR has never made 100% deliveries of SWP contract amounts.