[env-trinity] CALFED Votes to Disband!

[Tom Stokely]

 Water agency may revert to old status; CalFed proposes reforms, spurred by Schwarzenegger
Sacramento Bee - 12/21/05
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
 

Struggling to reinvent itself to meet the governor's deadline, the embattled CalFed Bay-Delta Authority on Tuesday opted to try on an old pair of shoes in hopes of pleasing critics. 

 

CalFed was created 10 years ago to end California's legendary water wars. It was charged with the difficult task of improving water supply and restoring the environment of the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 

 

Amid mounting criticism that the agency was failing on both accounts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered CalFed to propose reforms before the year's end. 

 

On Tuesday, the CalFed board voted to reconstitute itself under the umbrella of the California Water Commission, which was created in 1958 but has been dormant in recent years. 

 

CalFed leaders decided the commission offers the right legal structure to address complaints that CalFed lacks enforcement and budgetary powers and has little accountability to the public. 

 

"There needs to be a focus on mission, and that's what this is attempting to do," said Gary Hunt, chairman of the CalFed board. 

 

The 700,000-acre Delta serves as a water supply for 23 million Californians and more than 5 million acres of farmland, mostly in Southern California. Water exports to serve these users have played a role in pushing several fish species in the Delta to the brink of extinction. CalFed has received much of the blame for failing to strike the right balance. 

 

The idea behind CalFed was that environmental interests and water users could best unite by bringing 25 state and federal agencies together under a new framework for cooperation. 

 

The governor and Legislature insisted reforms were overdue when federal funding for the partnership waned, and both water users and environmental groups complained CalFed had strayed from its mission. 

 

The governor's mandate included an order for a series of independent studies by the Little Hoover Commission, the state Department of Finance and a consultant. 

 

Tuesday's actions are a response to those inquiries. 

 

Under the proposal, the state Water Commission would be revived and increased from nine to 13 members. Seven would be appointed by the governor and six by the Legislature, with representation from certain technical areas and regions of the state. 

 

CalFed also agreed that its existing 70 employees would be reassigned to a new unit within the state Resources Agency, where they would continue to serve CalFed goals. For at least the next year, however, it is likely CalFed will continue to operate in its present configuration. 

 

The board also voted to establish a separate "executive leadership council," chaired by the state secretary of resources and an appointee of the U.S. secretary of Interior. This entity will set overarching policy and ensure that the revived Water Commission stays on track to meet the original CalFed goals. 

 

"It's crucial that we separate out these two responsibilities," said Marc Holmes, a CalFed board member who represents the nonprofit Bay Institute. "If we're going to have credibility in the public mind, there has to be an independent policy body." 

 

Tuesday's vote is a recommendation to the governor, who is expected to consider the proposal and release his own plan for the agency in January, which will then be proposed as legislation. 

 

As such, it is a broad reform proposal that assumes many details will be worked out between the governor and Legislature. 

 

It remains to be seen whether the proposed reforms will satisfy. 

 

For instance, the issue of long-term funding is mostly unsettled. Lawmakers have been pushing CalFed to adopt a "beneficiary pays" program, in which water users and others who benefit from the Delta would pay for its upkeep and restoration. 

 

CalFed won an interim commitment from water users for $30 million over two years. But Barry Nelson, a senior policy advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said this is well short of what was expected when CalFed was formed. 

 

"There is a continued failure of the program to address fundamental issues," he said. 

 

The reforms also include preparation of a habitat conservation plan for the Delta, which would guide restoration and establish a means for water users to pay for it. 

 

But there is no similar requirement for the major tributaries essential to migratory fish: the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, where numerous dams have altered fish habitat. 

 

"It concerns me a lot," said Mike Aceituno, Sacramento-area supervisor for protected resources with the fisheries branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "To refocus the entire program and only look at the Delta is a mistake." #

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14003243p-14836366c.html

 

 

Agency overseeing CalFed recommends it's own elimination

San Francisco Chronicle - 12/21/05

Associated Press

 

The state agency created to safeguard the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta's environment and make sure that farmers and urban consumers get the water they need voted Tuesday to recommend its own elimination.

 

The California Bay-Delta Authority was created in 2003 with the goal of getting the 25 state and federal agencies that make up the CalFed Bay Delta Program to work together, and meet the needs of clashing groups of farmers, environmentalists, fishermen and others with a stake in the waters of the delta.

 

CalFed faced challenges from the start, caught between its conflicting goals of serving the environment and water consumers. In May, the governor ordered independent reviews of the program following threats by state lawmakers to cut part of the program's budget.

 

The Little Hoover Commission, a government-appointed body tasked with reviewing the Bay-Delta Authority, recommended last month that the agency should be eliminated and substituted with a new oversight body made up of public officials appointed by executive and legislative representatives.

 

Part of the problem, the Little Hoover report said, was that many of the members of the Bay-Delta Authority were top officials in the same agencies they were supposed to oversee.

 

The Bay-Delta Authority's 24-person board agreed, adopting the commission's recommendation as part of an operating framework for the next 10 years.

 

"The Authority recommended putting itself out of business, and recommended a better over oversight mechanism," said CalFed spokesman Keith Coolidge. "It's a big deal."

 

The framework adopted also included calls for improved fiscal accountability, greater use of science in the agency's decision-making, and the establishment of a long-term plan to help restore endangered species in the delta, Coolidge said.

 

But environmentalists attending the meeting were not impressed, and said they would believe that the agency would be responsive to the public when they saw it happen.

 

"That's supposedly what they're working on, but it isn't certain that that's what they're going to do," said LaDonna Williams, with People for Children's Health and Environmental Justice. "It's time to stop talking about it and just do it."

 

The Authority will now pass their recommended framework to the state Secretary of Resources. He will develop a 10-year plan incorporating all recommendations for improving CalFed, and deliver it to the governor by January, Coolidge said. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/20/state/n185505S33.DTL&hw=river&sn=007&sc=488

#####
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20051222/193358ea/attachment.html>