{"id":18990,"date":"2012-01-30T17:19:39","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T01:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=18990"},"modified":"2012-01-30T17:19:39","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T01:19:39","slug":"a-watered-down-bond-for-water-system-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/30\/a-watered-down-bond-for-water-system-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"A Watered-down Bond for Water System Improvements?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>CA Senate President Pro Tem tells water conference $11 billion is too much\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure  id=\"attachment_19056\" class=\"wp-caption right\" style=\"max-width: 285px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/30\/a-watered-down-bond-for-water-system-improvements\/h2o-stream-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19056\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19056\" title=\"H2O stream\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/H2O-stream1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"285\" height=\"213\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is the 2012 water bond heading for the drain?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;There are two subjects water people least want to talk about: politics and money,&#8221; said the former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, David Nahai.\u00a0He was speaking at the &#8220;Future of Water in Southern California&#8221; conference on a dry and windy Friday, here in the City of Angels. And those two were the uncomfortable topics State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) talked about in his lunch hour keynote.<\/p>\n<p>[module align=&#8221;left&#8217; width=&#8221;half&#8221; type=&#8221;pull-quote&#8221;]&#8221;Everybody asks &#8216;what&#8217;s gonna happen with the bond?&#8217; I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; Steinberg countered, to modest chuckles.[\/module]<\/p>\n<p>Sponsored by UCLA&#8217;s Luskin School of Public Affairs, the conference\u00a0was generously sprinkled with Southland water and sanitation district staff. They&#8217;d just spent the morning presenting new ideas for water &#8220;banking,&#8221; and new technologies for advanced recycling, and Steinberg knew the idea of less money would not wash down well with the noontime pasta salad and sandwiches. In fact, a proposal to\u00a0cut 25% from each project in the water bond measure even failed an Assembly committee vote on Jan. 10th.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As our <a title=\"Map - water bond\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214482319292510809356.000477e93a1c507e4d467&amp;msa=0\">interactive map<\/a> (below) shows, the <a href=\"http:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/wiki\/index.php\/California_Water_Bond_(2012)\">$11.1 billion proposal&#8217;s<\/a>\u00a0largest proposals are for water storage, Bay-Delta sustainability, groundwater clean-up, and advanced water treatment and recycling.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214482319292510809356.000477e93a1c507e4d467&amp;msa=0&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=37.334122,-119.733038&amp;spn=9.316076,8.385486&amp;output=embed\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nView <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214482319292510809356.000477e93a1c507e4d467&amp;msa=0&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=37.334122,-119.733038&amp;spn=9.316076,8.385486&amp;source=embed\">KQED: California&#8217;s Water Bond &#8211; Where Would the Money Go?<\/a> in a larger map<\/p>\n<p>The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) is already on record as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acwa.com\/news\/state-legislation\/bills-water-bond-reduction-peripheral-canal-fail-assembly-committee\">opposing any reduction<\/a>, calling the cut &#8220;premature&#8221; in Capitol testimony earlier this month. In an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2012\/01\/06\/4166562\/state-cant-wait-to-upgrade-its.html#storylink=cpy\">Op-Ed piece for the Sacramento Bee<\/a>, ACWA chief Timothy Quinn &#8212; also a former head of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District &#8212; brandished a Field survey it commissioned in which 84% of voters agreed, &#8220;the state has major water problems and must invest in its water infrastructure to ensure reliable water now and in future years.&#8221; And 64% said &#8220;investing billions of dollars in a state bond package (such as the one on the November ballot) would be worth it to ensure reliable water supplies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Steinberg conceded that most think the bond is &#8220;too large,&#8221; and critics say it&#8217;s overladen with pork. &#8220;I can accept that but one person&#8217;s pork is another person&#8217;s regional water solution,&#8221; Steinberg told the gathering. &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to be able to sell an $11 billion bond to voters during a very precarious period of economic recovery.&#8221;\u00a0The alternative numbers he gently lobbed were in the range of seven-to-ten billion dollars.<\/p>\n<p>A nationwide poll, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itt.com\/valueofwater\/\">&#8220;The Value of Water,&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0by hydro technology firm Xylem, Inc., showed &#8212; as of 18 months ago &#8212; water users were up for spending 11% more a month to upgrade their water systems. But the Natural Resources Defense Council had postprandial admonitions about the need to get truly creative with water system financing. NRDC&#8217;s David Beckman pointed to the group&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/greenbusiness\/cmi\/focus.asp\">Center for Market Innovation<\/a>, which is working to create large-scale private sector financing for energy efficiency projects.<\/p>\n<p>In closing, Steinberg floated a compromise: &#8220;The choice may be do it our way and risk getting nothing or do the best we can &#8212; albeit with a smaller bond.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CA Senate President Pro Tem tells water conference $11 billion is too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[57,268,657],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-18990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","category-water","tag-bond-measure","tag-groundwater","tag-water-conservation"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Watered-down Bond for Water System Improvements? 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