Lack of trust again prevents water agreement

Analysis: Both sides continue to fight against big changes amid crisis.

Published online on Saturday, Sep. 12, 2009

SACRAMENTO -- Everyone said the timing was right and the status quo was unacceptable.

But the latest attempt at statewide water fixes fell apart late Friday night for the same reason so many other efforts have failed: a lack of trust among environmentalists, water districts, Republicans, Democrats and other parties who have been warring over dams, rivers and canals for decades.

As they tend to do, lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to cobble together a compromise at the last minute at the end of the session.

The confusion came into full view at a hastily called Assembly committee meeting. The hearing, just a few hours before the session's end, was held to move along major policy changes on conservation, water-use reporting and a new council to oversee the environmentally damaged Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Pieces of the proposals had for days been negotiated behind closed doors by a select few, including Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council and The Nature Conservancy.

Rank-and file lawmakers scrambled to read the legislation and groups not included in the private talks lined up to complain.

"Two water agencies and two environmental groups are saying what's going to be done for 33-plus million people in California and how we manage our water, meeting in the dark of night," testified Jim Metropulos, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club. "That is where we're making water policy?"

The bills passed the panel, but the legislation never made it to a floor vote, mostly because Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a separate bill to borrow money for water projects.

If the stars were ever aligned for a deal, it was this year.

National attention came as environmental problems in the delta led to water-pumping cutbacks resulting in shortages for San Joaquin Valley farms. Commercial salmon fishing was closed for the second year in a row.

Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, made water a top priority. Latino Democrats joined Valley Republicans in calling for fixes that they said would put farmworkers back to work.

And the Schwarzenegger-appointed Delta Vision Task Force laid out a blueprint for change, declaring that water supply and environmental health of the delta should be "co-equal" goals.

Easier said than done.

Democrats, following a recommendation by the task force, called for a new council that would adopt a long-term delta plan.

But Republicans, backed by water districts, saw the council as nothing more than a bureaucratic hurdle to an ongoing program that could lead to a new canal that would pump water around the delta instead of through it. Residents in the delta saw something very different: that the council's sole purpose was to approve the canal, which they oppose as a water grab.

So both sides fought against big changes.

"Everyone wants a safe harbor," said Phil Isenberg, who led the Delta Vision Task Force. "People tend to dislike the status quo, but prefer to live with it rather than taking a risk."

On Friday morning, the select group of environmentalists and water users cut a deal on parts of the package, including the council.

But that left little time to hammer out proposed bond borrowing to pay for upgrades.

An old fight re-emerged: Republicans complained that Democrats wanted to make the bond money hard to spend on dams.

Democrats countered that Republicans were too focused on dams, instead of conservation and water-use monitoring.

Then the clock ran out.

Leaders immediately called for the governor to call a special session on water. He called a similar session almost exactly two years ago, saying efforts "to avert a water crisis are too important to walk away from simply because of a date on the legislative calendar."

Nothing happened.