[env-trinity] State's water under new committee

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/9817411p-10677362c.html

State's water under new committee 


Leader of Senate group wants to know 'who's using what.' 

By Eric Stern
Bee Capitol Bureau 

(Updated Sunday, January 23, 2005, 6:23 AM)



SACRAMENTO -- When deciding the course of state water policy, the farm-friendly Senate Agriculture Committee has long placed irrigating crops at the top of the priority list. 


But under a committee shake-up, the conservation-minded Senate Natural Resources Committee now will divvy up the state's water. The move has raised eyebrows from some farm groups. Legislative leaders say that placing water policy decisions under the resource committee is aimed at balancing water use across the state.

The agriculture industry "has always been sort of the primary player when you look at water, but we did not want people to have an erroneous perception that agriculture had a higher entitlement to water," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who is leading the hybrid resources-water committee. 

Kuehl laid out her goals for the committee's work on water issues. She's not calling for more reservoirs, a new canal to Southern California or any desalination plants. Instead, she's more interested in finding out "who's using what."

"I want a much more transparent ... set of information that gives us the whole picture on water in the state and gives everyone the tools that they need to do early planning," Kuehl said. She said spotty record-keeping has made it difficult to understand how much water is being used by some holders of century-old water rights. She wants to get tough on water agencies, farmers and other users who are required to send annual reports to the state.

"If you don't file the report, we'll assume non-use," she said. "And five years of non-use means you lose the rights."

Kuehl emphasized that agriculture needs will not be lessened. She tapped Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, to lead a subcommittee on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Machado, a farmer, led the old agriculture-water committee.

"I didn't want to waste his knowledge and understanding of that issue," she said.

Kuehl's goals also include requiring water agencies to fully investigate how projects will affect the environment and to better determine the costs of transporting water across the state.

She also wants water agencies to implement "cost-effective conservation" measures to avoid wasting water.

The Assembly already bumped water policy decisions out of its agriculture committee years ago.

A committee is the first -- and possibly last -- stop for legislation. For example, a decade-long effort in the 1980s to post warnings to farmworkers about chemicals sprayed in the fields kept getting killed by the agriculture committee, said Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento.

It wasn't until legislative leaders gave the bill to the natural resources committee that it passed through the Legislature, he said.

"That's the classic fate of a bill that can be determined simply by which committee it goes to," said Hodson, a former Capitol staffer. "An agriculture committee is going to look at the world differently than the natural resources committee, and that can have significant influence on policy."

The reporter can be reached at estern at modbee.com or (916) 326-5544.
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