Independent governance of valuable natural and public resources is becoming a strategy of innovative public policy, and so it is with the condition established by the Nature Conservancy to support the peripheral canal, as this article notes.
This is also the policy we advocate for the Parkway, independent, dedicated governance through a joint powers authority contracting with a nonprofit organization to provide management and fund raising for the Parkway, which is suffering mightily during a period of shrinking government funding.
An excerpt.
“One of the nation's largest environmental groups has decided to support building a controversial new water canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“In a statement expected today, the Nature Conservancy calls a canal diverting the Sacramento River around the Delta an "essential component" to restore the estuary and protect water supplies. It thus becomes the first major environmental group to publicly support the project.
“But the conservancy wants a new and independent governing agency formed first, to ensure that the canal is operated both to enhance the environment and protect water supplies. Resolving such thorny issues is why the group chose to express conditional support for the canal now.
"We need to explore something that's new and has more independence, and we need to do that as soon as possible," said Anthony Saracino, the conservancy's California water program director. "The trick really isn't in the engineering; it's in the governance."
