[env-trinity] C-WIN Board unanimously opposes pending water bond measure

[Mark Dowdle - TCRCD]

*Oppose Water Bond, C-WIN Board Says*

*Agribusiness and MWD will kill Delta, and bilk California ratepayers*

Unanimously opposing the Governor’s $11.14 billion water bond, the 
California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) Board of Directors urges voters 
to reject the water bond next November 2010.

“The Governor’s water legislation marks the path to build the Peripheral 
Canal,” said C-WIN President and Executive Director Carolee Krieger. 
“And the water bond he signed will soak all Californians for the impacts 
from the Peripheral Canal. It will kill the Delta’s present ecosystems.

“And Southern California water ratepayers will foot most of 
agribusiness’s and the Metropolitan Water District’s construction bill. 
We urge your ‘no’ vote on the bond,” she said.

Building the Peripheral Canal—which would be bigger than the Panama 
Canal—could cost $53 billion, over $1 billion per mile. “With 14 million 
California taxpayers,” said Jim Edmondson, C-WIN’s Treasurer, and 
himself a Mono Lake activist in the victory over Los Angeles in the 
1980s and 1990s, “that’s nearly $4,000 per taxpayer in California! It’s 
bad business and offends common sense.”

About 80 percent of the canal’s water would irrigate selenium-poisoned 
land in the western San Joaquin Valley at the same time it would take 
water away from productive Delta soils. Instead, retiring those poisoned 
lands would free water up to serve the equivalent of two million 
California households.

The bond contains $2.25 billion for Delta restoration and $1.785 billion 
for watershed funding in the rest of California. These pork projects 
bought support of legislators previously opposing the bond.

“Make no mistake, this is an Astroturf water bond for agribusiness and 
MWD under the guise of providing environmental restoration,” said Joan 
Hartmann, C-WIN Board member and a long-time southern California 
watershed activist, adding, “Californians want real water solutions for 
/all/ Californians, not just to benefit the Governor’s political 
cronies,” said Hartmann.

The Governor’s water bond, if passed, would strip Delta water rights 
under state laws enacted after Los Angeles stole Owens Valley’s water 
supply a century ago. Without such protections, Delta water will get 
saltier, making the quest for a Peripheral Canal self-fulfilling.

“The Governor and his friends’ Delta water grab would set a terrible, 
frightening precedent for all parts of California with abundant streams 
and rivers,” warned Krieger. “If they can do it to the Delta with all 
its natural wealth, they’ll come for /your/ water someday. ”

*For more information, visit our new website at **http://www.c-win.org* 
<http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8HAQFRBksCAEQGBVY%3D>*.*