It looks like some common sense is returning in the discussion around dams that has been too long dominated by a strange perspective that seems to see a huge danger in technological solutions to natural problems.
We discuss this strange perspective and what may be causing it in our research report about the Auburn Dam Policy Environment on our website, www.arpps.org.
Plan would fund two dams
Bond includes $4 billion for reservoirs
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday waded into some of the most dangerous waters in California politics with a $6 billion plan to build two new reservoirs and re-engineer the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to counter climate change and other threats.
The funding is contained in a $29.4 billion bond plan, part of the governor's 2007-08 budget that's expected to be released today. The bonds would appear on the 2008 ballot, if the Legislature agrees to get on board.
The state has not built a new dam on its own in 30 years. The subject routinely divides conservative and liberal politicians. Last year, Democrats defeated a Republican push to include dams in the $4.1 billion flood-control bond, Proposition 1E, that voters approved in November.
Schwarzenegger's plan is an effort to put dams back in play. He did not mention the dams specifically in his State of the State speech Tuesday, but his staff presented them as key pieces of preparations for climate change.
Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources, hinted that the administration is willing to compromise on the plan and welcomes debate.
The bond would include $4 billion for dams and $500 million for groundwater storage projects.
"If people want to argue that it should be half the surface storage and twice the groundwater storage, that's a wonderful discussion to have," Snow said. "The problem is, no matter what we do, we continue to have problems with snowpack and runoff."
