California lawmakers agree on $7.5B drought plan

Driven to action by California’s historic drought, state lawmakers on Wednesday voted to place a $7.5 billion water plan before voters in November, ending a year of political wrangling over the measure.

California is in the throes of a devastating multiyear drought that is expected to cost its economy $2.2 billion in lost crops, jobs and other damages.

The measure marks the largest investment in decades in the state's water infrastructure and is designed to build reservoirs, clean up contaminated groundwater and promote water-saving technologies.

It replaces an existing water bond that was approved by a previous legislature but was widely considered too costly and too bloated with pork-barrel projects to win favor with voters.

On the last possible day to approve the ballot measure, Democrats and Republicans fought over what projects to include, with Republicans arguing for more funding for reservoirs and Democrats saying that damming rivers and flooding canyons to build them is damaging to the environment.

Last-minute intervention by Gov. Jerry Brown, a fiscal moderate, brought the sides together. The ballot measure sailed through both houses of the legislature: 77-2 in the Assembly and 37-0 in the Senate. Republican Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks and Democrat Wesley Chesbro of Arcata cast the dissenting votes in the Assembly.

After signing the legislation, AB1471, Gov. Brown said he probably had never seen Democrats and Republicans so united in his lifetime.

"With this water bond, legislators from both parties have affirmed their faith in California's future," Brown said.

Democratic Speaker Toni G. Atkins said late on Wednesday that the water bond was "the biggest investment in water storage in decades."

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff said the plan, which costs less than the $11 billion bond that the California Legislature agreed to in 2009, dedicated nearly 40 percent of funds to water storage.

The agreed bond includes $2.7 billion for new storage, including facilities in the Central Valley; $900 million for a groundwater cleanup investment in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley; over $250 million in drinking and wastewater treatment projects and statewide investments to tackle drought and climate change, said State Democratic Senator Lois Wolk.

Provisions in the proposal involving water recycling and cleanup of contaminated groundwater could increase the availability of water during future droughts. The bond also includes other water projects not directly related to supply, such as watershed improvements and flood management.

California, with a population that exceeds 38 million and an agricultural industry that feeds the nation, has been struggling to meet the increasing demands for water after three dry winters.

The push to revamp the 2009 ballot measure, which had been delayed from statewide votes twice, gained momentum as the worst drought in a generation intensified throughout the state. It has forced farmers to fallow fields, led to double-digit unemployment in many rural areas, turned large expanses of reservoirs into mud flats and prompted local governments to mandate water-use restrictions and impose fines for water waste.

Numerous agricultural, environmental and business groups quickly endorsed the legislative compromise. The plan includes $7.1 billion in new borrowing and $425 million from previous bonds that would be redirected to the updated water priorities. Redirecting that money requires voter approval.

Wire services