Schwarzenegger Uses Address to Push for Fiscally Irresponsible Water Bond Proposal

'State of the State' Address: Schwarzenegger Campaigns Again for Peripheral Canal and Dams

by Dan Bacher

The Governor, in his “State of the State” address this afternoon, urged the public and legislators to embrace his campaign to build a peripheral canal and more dams to increase water exports. He claimed that he wants “fix the Delta and restore the ecosystem” at a time California Delta fish populations are collapsing because of massive increases in State Water Project exports from the Delta in recent years.

Schwarzenegger, as he has done since announcing his support for a peripheral canal and more dams last June, portrayed a scenario of imminent disaster to the state’s economy unless his water bond proposal is passed, saying he would “continue to push for action.”

“We have a water system built decades ago for 18 million people,” said Schwarzenegger. “Today we have 37 million people. In 20 years, we will have 50 million people. We have to get going.”

Schwarzenegger continued, “Already homes and businesses are facing mandatory cutbacks. Farms are unable to irrigate crops. Building permits are being denied.”

Even though virtually all of California’s economically feasible dam sites already have dams on them, he continues to argue that economically unfeasible new dams such as the Sites and Temperance Flat reservoirs must built at enormous cost to the taxpayers.

Schwarzenegger, like the dam builders of the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s, believes in the long discredited ideology that water that goes into estuaries, bays and the ocean is “wasted,” completely disregarding all of the extensive scientific evidence proving that fresh water inflows into estuaries and the ocean are absolutely necessary to sustain our fisheries and the aquatic food chain along the California and West Coast.

“And yet raging flood waters run wasted into the sea because they can't be captured,” said Schwarzenegger. “We must expand water storage. We must build new water delivery systems. We must fix the Delta and restore its ecosystem.”

He also indicated he was going to aggressively push his campaign of building a costly and environmentally destructive peripheral canal and more dams, in spite of lack of public support to date for building this infrastructure.

“And I will continue to push you on this, because California needs water now – and 20, 30, 50 years from now,” Schwarzenegger concluded.

In his address, he failed to address the need for water conservation and recycling to address the state’s water needs. He also neglected to mention anything about the fact the state’s municipal, industrial and sustainable agricultural needs could be more easily met if drainage impaired agricultural land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley is taken out of production.

Finally, he failed to explain how, in a time when the state is facing a $14 billion budget deficit, his $9 billion water bond proposal that will indebt future generations of Californians makes economic sense.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign coordinator of Restore the Delta, pointed out the irony of Schwarzenegger campaigning for his outlandishly expensive water bond measure during an address when he emphasized the need for “fiscal responsibility.”

“We are interested in understanding how the Governor’s office can continue to voice support for a water bond that would add hundreds of millions of service debt to be paid back by Californians when our current financial house is hardly in order,” she stated.

According to Parrilla, “Fresno Bee staff writer E.J. Schultz reported yesterday that Senator Dave Cogdill (R – Modesto) still wants a legislative deal pulled together this year for his previously proposed water bond, which would include new dams and funding for the construction of a peripheral canal. Senator Don Perata (D – Oakland), however, is holding off on promoting an alternative bond measure, which would not including funding for a peripheral canal, out of concern for the current budget crisis.”

Parrilla concluded, “And just maybe, our limited financial resources will prompt our state political leaders to begin studying, promoting and legislating twenty-first century solutions for California’s future water needs – including water recycling, groundwater desalinization, restoring floodplains for eco-friendly water storage, and conservation incentives. Economically and environmentally speaking, the era of nineteenth-century water projects is dead. Instead, water management programs that make economic and environmental sense for the California Delta need to be set in place.”

I agree totally with Parrilla. Schwarzenegger is living in the past, when grandiose water projects and dams were constructed with little or no regard for the environment. Schwarzenegger’s zeal for building a canal and more dams at a time when delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, striped bass and other species have declined to record low population levels make the mainstream media’s portrayal of him as the “green governor” a tragic, surrealistic joke.