It appears there is still a possibility for new dams in the bill being worked on by state legislators, but we will hold our hurrahs until we see the signed product, given the adamant resistance to dams by the deep ecology inspired environmental movement which appears to be driving the legislative narrative of the controlling party.
But, again, hope springs eternal that common sense prevails and the reality of water in California—nature provides but we must capture and save—is effectively addressed.
An excerpt from the story from the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Strict conservation, new dams and a peripheral canal are all on the table after six weeks of closed-door negotiations to solve the state's water crisis and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem.
“Leaders in the state Senate and Assembly are still discussing how to pay for the plan, which could cost $9.4 billion.
“The Legislature could vote on the plan as soon as the end of the week.
“State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said that he did not want the proposal to "linger" and that the overhaul that has been decades in the making has a "momentum that did not exist before."
"There is no question the status quo is unacceptable, and there is no other ... package in our respective houses that would allow us to move forward in a comprehensive way," Steinberg said.
“Water for 24 million people in California - about two-thirds of the state's population - flows through the delta system, which has a series of levees and canals at great risk of failing in a natural disaster such as an earthquake.”
