Guv Brown wants to spend upwards of $70 billion for a Delta Tunnel, a project that, if successful, would not create a single drop of new water, move water from north to south and protect more fish. Once the bond measure is passed, only the governor will have control of the money—and his appointees.
Like a stopped clock, even a Democrat is right one in a while. Democrat Assemblyman Frazier wants to have the legislature be the final arbiter of this project. This is why we elect people to office, to make decisions—staff carries it out, they do not tell the public and legislature what the rules are.
“He’s (Jim Frazier) author of a bill, AB 1671, which would require the approval of the twin, 36-mile-long tunnels by the Legislature before it could move forward. Currently, approval rests with the Delta Stewardship Council, a seven-member group, the majority of whom owe their positions to the governor. The governor is the leading proponent for the $67 billion tunnel idea.
Who’s in charge here? Lawmaker challenges Delta tunnels process
Central Valley Business Times, 3/4/14
• Assemblyman wants Legislature, not appointees, to have final say
• “We as Californians need to work toward self-reliance”
The elected lawmakers of California’s Legislature must have the final say – not an appointed board – on whether massive twin water tunnels are to be built under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, says Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley.
He’s author of a bill, AB 1671, which would require the approval of the twin, 36-mile-long tunnels by the Legislature before it could move forward. Currently, approval rests with the Delta Stewardship Council, a seven-member group, the majority of whom owe their positions to the governor. The governor is the leading proponent for the $67 billion tunnel idea.
Is this just a tilting-at-windmills effort, doomed to failure in a Legislature that gave up its oversight to the council and a governor bent on one of the most expensive projects in state history? Jim Frazier talks about his bill in today’s exclusive CVBT Audio Interview. Please click on the link below to listen now or to download the MP3 audio file.)
Mr. Frazier’s two-page, two-sentence bill is in the Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. The committee may take it up on March 15.
For the longer term, he says, local initiatives could provide the ultimate solution to the state’s ongoing water issues.
“We as Californians need to work toward self-reliance in Southern California and helping them in that need,” Mr. Frazier says.
Storage, recycling water, desalination and other strategies should be pursued, he says. “San Diego is a model right now for their desalination plant,” he says.
The San Diego plant – actually located in Carlsbad — will give the local water authority 59,000 acre-feet of water tapped from the Pacific Ocean, Mr. Frazier says.
But it’s not been an overnight project. It has taken 12 years to plan and another six years to plow through the thickets of bureaucratic approvals. Actual construction has been underway for a year and the plant is now about 25 percent finished It’s expected to begin delivering water by 2016.
Drilldown
Click here to listen now or to download the MP3 audio file (frazier.mp3, 5.21 MB)
