Gov. Schwarzenegger’s threat to veto the entire class of bills from this year unless he gets the water bill he wants is incredibly petty. I hope the legislature calls his bluff, and if he does veto every bill the legislature produced this year, I hope they impeach him. Further, the things Schwarzenegger is holding out for (two new dams, Sites and Temperance Flats) aren’t the crucial next step for California. He could get the crucial next step (deep conservation measures and an entity with the authority to move ahead with a Peripheral Canal) from the bills the Dems have offered him. But he’s insisting on two fairly trivial new dams, presumably because those represent a personal victory for him*.
The insistence on getting this done this year is also silly. Phil Isenberg says to do it now, and I generally give a lot of credence to his opinions. But I think the machinery for what the big water bills would do is already churning. The state is moving ahead on a big water conservation push (20% by 2020). Right now that’s not mandatory and legislatively mandating it would be helpful. But it is gathering steam and could be a stand-alone legislative effort next year. Putting in place an entity to govern the Delta would also be great, but it will take a couple years to do it and frankly, whether that starts this, next or two years from now won’t make that much difference. The first thing that entity will do is an EIR for the Peripheral Canal and a habitat plan for the Delta, and people are already working on that. Don’t think that the specs, surveys, design and permits for a Peripheral Canal aren’t already under development. They are, and if an entity isn’t created to manage that this year, the work that Canal proponents are doing now will be that much further along when some Delta governing entity comes into existence.
Yeah, what’s at stake here is the governor’s reputation, which I care nothing for, and two dams that I’m ambivalent to slightly negative about. The work that I think is crucial is underway. Don’t cave, legislature! Send the governor the water bills YOU want.
***
I do want to make a friendly amendment to this summary from Calitics:
We’ve mentioned the water issue for a long time, but there is no way to overemphasize one critical point: No matter how many projects you build, you do not get any additional water.
OK, that’s not true. There are crazy projects that could get more water. Those aren’t on the table, but, you know, bringing in water from the Great Lakes would actually be new water to CA. There aren’t cost-efficient legal projects that would yield (noticeable amounts) of new water. However, the state looks to be getting much less water under climate change, arriving in floods from rainy spring storms. It is possible that new dams could catch some of that. This isn’t new water, but it could mean that new dams would help us keep more of what we’ve got now than we could without them. That increment is pretty important to whichever junior right holder is in line to use it. New dams have a direct link to someone’s existing interests. As for “substantial new amounts of water to grow on”? No one serious is talking about that. The serious discussion is about minimizing losses.
* Also, I imagine because if we delay on those two dams, the next time they’re considered, we’ll know even more about the new hydrology, which might well show that they’ll never be full. The new hydrology might also show that we need them more than ever to catch the precip that used to be snow but will now be rain. Nevertheless, I think new dams become less likely with time, not more likely. Especially if a Peripheral Canal gets built in the meantime and the system doesn’t seem to be quite so broken.
On the public record 
Speaking of the Great Lakes, I occasionally hear of plans that, like you said, would pump great lakes water to California. Do you know if those plans are in any way realistic or seriously talked about? In California or elsewhere in the Southwest?
(Also, I’m a new poster, and I really appreciate that someone is writing a blog like this.)
Hey CJ,
Glad you like the blog.
No, there are no realistic plans to move big water from outside the state. There aren’t even certain plans for new projects within the state (although we’ll know when the Legislature acts). I’ll be extremely shocked if there are any large-scale water engineering projects in California again. We’re moving into the era of finessing what we’ve got. Can’t say about the rest of the Southwest; I have a very regional focus to my attention.