Californians: Help Anthony Rendon Protect Our Water … Here’s Why and How

We should be grateful, however, that we are graced in this State with policymakers who have taken the leadership to tackle this calamitous circumstance.  The leader of the pack is Assemblymember Anthony Rendon (AD 63) who authored AB 1331, theClean and Safe Drinking Water Act of 2014. 

AB 1331 will address the following issues (if our “State is to remain economically competitive and environmentally rich”): 

• clean and safe drinking water
• protection of rivers and the coast
• regional water infrastructure, including conservation, recycling, and storm water
• Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Sustainability
• storage for climate change
• drought-relief projects
• special attention to disadvantaged communities
• small community waste-treatment improvements
• protection of our natural habitats
• projects that leverage private, federal, and local funding that benefit the public
• projects that employ new or innovative technology or practices 

Areas where the poor and otherwise disadvantaged reside always seem to get the least attention and thus their communities often equate to the most polluted in their respective regions.  This bill will address and prioritize the needs of these groups—what a concept!  Through this and other recent legislation, Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra (AD 39) has assured the public that priorities will be given to the hiring of “disadvantaged youth and unemployed veterans”—a boost to the economy through increased employment opportunities.   

In fact, construction jobs that emerge from the Bond project will produce around 30,000 jobs over a period of years.  Governor Brown, Los Angeles’ Mayor Garcetti, the Santa Monica Conservancy, and the LA Business Council (among others) have given their strong support to this bill—having the foresight to recognize all the good it will do for the State and the greater population. 

We also want to see that, once enacted, local communities will have greater say about how the millions of dollars are spent.  The Twin Tunnel Project for the Sacramento Delta would cost between $14 and $24 billion.  Those consumers who will directly benefit from this project will be asked to pay their fair share for construction and mitigation.  As a consequence, their water rate will proportionately be increased.    

To augment this program, we need to clean up our own groundwater, an action that would clearly benefit us.  Utilizing local water sources would, without question, be more efficient and less costly.  Thus, we should support any policy that would have the greater impact on the local economy.  Passage of AB 1331 would help do this. 

Limited snow pack, aquifer and ground-water contamination, and conflicting interests between northern and southern California have all contributed to obstacles providing adequate water supplies.  The once-lauded LA Aqueduct is full of toxins—an issue that must also be immediately corrected. 

Those who challenge the role of government in our lives might look differently about this issue when faced with the facts.  If a prudent policy that can meet our water challenges is not instituted immediately, residential, commercial, and industrial interests will all be faced with perhaps insurmountable impediments to maintaining the safety of drinking water which affects “our State’s quality of life and our economy.”  

Farmers, particularly from the northern region of our State, will have to look at their own water usage differently.  They don’t want “their” water to be diverted to the south (Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego, for instance) but they must recognize that many of their crops require a disproportionate amount of water because these crops are not natural to the California setting.  Some fields need to lay fallow for periods of time (I learned that as a young student) and other fields need to be planted with crops that require less water. 

Yes, a certain amount of money will be set aside for “earmarks”—too often connoted as “pork.”

Often that pork, however, is absolutely necessary for local communities and should not be dismissed as an evil.  Aerospace and solar jobs, infrastructure projects, educational assistance are frequently all part of such earmarks.  Thus, we vote for leaders whom we believe will represent our best interests--ones that may mandate the need for such earmarks. 

I have to take a moment here to give some props to former Governor Schwarzenegger (regardless of what you may think of him) who stated:  “When you hear about pork, what is for some people pork, is for us cleaning up the groundwater.”  Therefore, AB 1331 will contain, out of its overall budget, a small percentage dedicated for regional interests.  The following is an abbreviated list of the bill’s beneficial set-asides: 

• reducing fire risk, protecting water quality, and restoring watershed health across 22 counties through a variety of projects
• funding for regional water supply is absolutely appropriate and necessary to address the State’s short- and long-term water challenges
• educating the public about what we personally can do to address water issues 

We cannot overlook the fact that we survive as a civilization because of our direct symbiotic relationship between ourselves and the flora and fauna around us.  Depending on how the tunnel construction is designed, there is concern that fish could be sucked into the tunnels and die. 

Furthermore, protecting the desert tortoise or the tiger salamander (let alone an array of plants), that for some seem so irrelevant to our existence, is critical to the circle of life, to our lives, and to our standard of living. 

We cannot simply extend our footprint through ever-expanding developments without consideration to the water needed to sustain such enterprises.  Are we going to keep building at the unprecedented scale to which we are witness today?  What will happen to our lush mountains and idyllic rivers and lakes and to our colorful deserts?  

There is much more than urban living that we must take into consideration.  There is much more to farming than insistence on growing crops that are no longer sustainable. 

In summary, this bill, AB 1331, will do the following: 

• protect water quality and ensure safe, clean drinking water; meet the water supply needs of California residents, farms, businesses; expand water conservation and recycling; restore fish and wildlife habitat; reduce polluted runoff that contaminates rivers, streams, beaches, and bays; and protect the safety of water supplies threatened by earthquakes [bold face added] and other natural disasters 

(Keep in mind the inordinate amount of water required to maintain fracking practices whose sites are everywhere throughout the State even now and whose results cause irreparable damage to our water, specifically, and our environment, in general.) 

• the State of California shall issue bonds … paid from existing State funds subject to independent annual audits and citizen oversight, hence using State tax revenue to repay bondholders. 

We cannot afford to be myopic about this issue.  Don’t listen to the naysayers who utilize catch-phrases and buzz words to scare us away from voting in our best interests.  Look carefully at those who oppose this bill and ask yourselves, Why? 

Passage of AB 1331 is, without question, advantageous to us.  And its benefits will accrue to all of us only if we reject the other possibility—a State that cannot sustain itself if we continue, unabated, in the path that we are now pursuing. 

Just sayin’.

For more information, please contact the following: 

Alf Brandt, Legislative Director for Asm. Anthony Rendon:  [email protected]              

Alexandra Nagy at Food and Water Watch:  [email protected]