Jerry Brown still refuses to take position on peripheral canal, water bond

Jerry Brown still refuses to take position on peripheral canal, water bond

by Dan Bacher

Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Governor, refused to take a position on the peripheral canal/tunnel and the $11.14 billion water bond in an interview with the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, "Brown: Whitman's plans help the rich," published on September 25.

This is very alarming, considering that Brown supported the initiative in 1982 to build the canal, a measure that was overwhelming defeated by the state’s voters. Brown and Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for Governor, are in a dead heat in the race, according to the latest Field Poll.

“Brown also said he would make resolving the state's water crisis a top priority, although he didn't indicate whether he supported an $11 billion bond to fund water infrastructure that may go before voters,” according to the Bee (http://www.sacbee.com)

“It is just formidable," Brown told the Bee about the water issue. "I'm not going to put this on a back burner. While I'm working at the budget in the daytime, I'll be studying the peripheral canal at nighttime."

The Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, due to their fear that the unpopular water bond would be defeated by the voters on November 2, recently voted to delay the bond until November 2012. The fact that this measure has been postponed until the 2012 ballot makes it even more imperative that Brown adopts a position against the water bond, a virtual festival of park.

In regards to overall water and fishery issues, the environmental solutions that Brown lists on this website (http://www.jerrybrown.org) are very vague about what he would do for collapsing California fish populations.

“Fish populations in California, including salmon, steelhead and trout, are in serious trouble,” he states.

He then offers the following broad, generic “solutions” to address the crisis of parks and wildlife areas and fish populations in the state:

“Assure funding to maintain existing parks and wildlife areas.

Protect vulnerable species and habitat through conservation agreements and enforcement of state resource protection laws.

Take reasonable steps to ensure a healthier habitat for California’s unique fish species by limiting sediment and other runoff entering streams, replacing culverts that impede fish passage with salmon-friendly pipes, and working with local ranchers to fence off cattle from sensitive streams.”

These “solutions” show that Brown either hasn’t studied these issues carefully or is afraid to advocate more specific solutions in an apparent effort to avoid alienating campaign donors or potential voters.

Some fish advocates fear that Brown may be reluctant to take a position on the canal/tunnel and water bond because Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon who owns 120,000 acres of farmland in Kern County, is a big contributor to the Brown campaign. Resnick is a strong supporter of the water bond and peripheral canal and a relentless opponent of the federal biological opinions protecting imperiled salmon and smelt. On November 11, 2009, Resnick and his wife, Lynda, the co-owner of the giant Paramount Farms and Roll Corporation, wrote four checks totalling $50,000 for the Brown campaign.

To date, the Brown campaign has refused to respond to my questions about the peripheral canal, water bond, restoration efforts for endangered salmon, Delta smelt and other species, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initative.

Republican Candidate Meg Whitman hasn’t responded yet to my questions either, but she has been very vocal in her positions in support of the water bond and peripheral canal and has strongly opposed Delta pumping restrictions to protect endangered Delta smelt and chinook salmon since she began her campaign.

Whitman has adopted a strong position in support of the water bond and peripheral canal, even though she conceded at a speech in San Diego in February that "there is probably $2 to $3 billion in unnecessary expenses in that bill."

"If we don't pass this water bill and we go back to the drawing board on negotiations, we will be having the same conversation five years from now, 10 years from now," Whitman told the San Diego Union-Tribune on February 26. "The farmers won't be better off, and we will not have a stable water supply for L.A. County, San Diego, Orange County."

Whitman's Website (http://www.megwhitman.com), reporting on her visit to Fresno on May 29, 2009, proclaimed, "As governor, she said she would stick with her conviction that saving jobs takes precedence and would use emergency powers to order more pumping from the Delta. In the longer term, she supports more above- and below-ground storage facilities and the construction of a peripheral canal in addition to conservation efforts."

Whitman has also completely sided with corporate agribusiness – and against working men and women in the fishing industry devastated by the Central Valley salmon population collapse – in supporting increased pumping out of the Delta. On May 26, 2010, she issued a statement prairsing Federal Court Judge Oliver Wanger's decision to temporarily lift the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumping restrictions protecting endangered salmon Central Valley populations.

"I am encouraged by the Federal Court's decision earlier this week that ruled to temporarily lift the pumping restrictions in order to increase water deliveries to the Central Valley," said Whitman. "This is just a start. We need a comprehensive solution and strong leadership to really fix California's water crisis."

While Brown refuses to take a stand on key water issues including the water bond, peripheral canal and salmon restoration, we at least know where Whitman stands. She is allied completely with corporate agribusiness interests and southern California water agencies who are doing everything they can to pressure the state of California to build a huge canal/tunnel, export more water from the Delta and push collapsing populations of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other species over the abyss of extinction.