Public leadership’s inability to provide reasonable response to California’s need for more water by approving dams has led to the efforts by private leaders to do so, and that is to be encouraged.
Editorial: California on course for another water debacle
Dueling initiatives on water projects set stage for a rerun of 1982 electoral follies
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 7, 2007
California's "water community" – the term often used to describe the agencies, environmental groups, agribusinesses and other industries with an interest in the state's water – is one of the silliest misnomers in common parlance.
A community, like a functional family, shares certain attributes: It communicates. It recognizes shared interests. It doesn't put the needs of an individual over that of the group.
California's water community is anything but. At its worst, it is an assemblage of medieval hill towns, heavily fortified and prone toward lobbing fire balls at each other. For several months, the governor's office and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata have been trying to intercept those bombs. They are failing. California's water wars now appear to be heading to the ballot.
Again.
On Wednesday, the California Chamber of Commerce filed four initiatives that could lead to a November bond measure of $10 billion or more for dams and other projects.
If the Chamber ends up qualifying one of these initiatives, Perata and his environmental allies are prepared to file a countermeasure. In all likelihood, voters will reject both, partly because the state's fiscal crisis is likely to deepen by November.
