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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>STATE GOVERNMENT / PERFORMANCE
REVIEW</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Environment of doubt greets efficiency report
</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>State may eliminate water board
system</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>San Diego Union-Tribune -
8/9/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Terry Rodgers, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's team of government-efficiency
experts to reduce and consolidate the state's environmental agencies is getting
a thumbs down from several leading environmentalists. </P>
<P>"All that's needed is minor adjustments, but the California Performance
Review is recommending major surgery," said Encinitas resident Steve Aceti,
director of the California Coastal Coalition. "It's way beyond what is needed to
make things more efficient." </P>
<P>Schwarzenegger's hand-picked efficiency commission, which did not include
environmentalists, has called for reorganizing most of the state's environmental
agencies under two new departments, Environmental Protection and Natural
Resources. </P>
<P>"People have the impression it's primarily a power grab at the executive
level," Aceti said. "This is going to create a bigger, centralized bureaucracy
and that may not be a better approach for environmental issues." </P>
<P>Among the most controversial is a recommendation to eliminate the state's
system of nine regional water quality boards, which enforce the federal Clean
Water Act and the state's Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. </P>
<P>"It's an incredibly bad idea," said Jack Minan, a University of San Diego law
professor and chairman of the Region 9 San Diego Water Quality Control Board.
"There would not be the check-and-balance of decision making at the local
level." </P>
<P>The regional board system is a decentralized approach to regulating and
preventing water pollution. Decisions are made by board members, appointed from
the community by the governor, who often tailor pollution-prevention programs
and enforcement to reflect local conditions. </P>
<P>"The regional boards are accessible to the average person and they allow more
citizens to participate in protecting and preserving clean water," said San
Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye, a longtime clean-water activist. </P>
<P>Eliminating them, Frye said, "would be outrageous and counter-productive. The
problem with these super agencies is that they are not efficient." </P>
<P>Shelley Luce of Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental
group, said the regional boards provide a local sounding board for grass-roots
activists to push for cleaner water. Eliminating or weakening them, she said,
"would be a disaster for water quality in California." </P>
<P>The inconsistencies of the regional board system are well-known. San Diego's
board has been honored by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for
vigilant enforcement and adopting tough regulations to curb urban runoff
pollution. In contrast, the Central Valley's board has balked at holding the
agriculture industry to the same standards. </P>
<P>Wayne Rosenbaum, a San Diego attorney and expert on the complex urban runoff
regulations, said the business community strongly favors making the bureaucracy
more user-friendly. </P>
<P>"If you had a single statewide board you would obtain greater consistency and
greater efficiency," Rosenbaum said. </P>
<P>Most business and industry representatives cannot serve on the regional
boards because of conflict-of-interest regulations barring anyone who is
regulated by any of the board's clean-water permits, he said. </P>
<P>A lengthy report recommending the changes says consolidating California's
numerous environmental agencies will eliminate duplication and foster a more
cohesive set of policies and interagency cooperation. </P>
<P>While he supports the idea of making the government more efficient, Wayne
Nastri, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency's Southwest Region, said
improving the environment should remain the overriding goal. </P>
<P>"Many states do things differently than California," Nastri said. "We believe
we can work with any organizational structure. </P>
<P>"It all comes down to the bottom line: Is the water purer, the air cleaner
and the land better protected?" </P>
<P>Former state Sen. Fred Keeley, executive director of the Planning and
Conservation League, echoed similar concerns. </P>
<P>"I think there has to be an agreement first on the management objectives,"
Keeley said. "We have to ask ourselves: What are we managing towards in the
environment?" </P>
<P>Keeley said the government-efficiency report should be treated like an
Olympic diving match. </P>
<P>"I would take out all the highs and then remove all the lows and try to deal
with what's in between," he said. </P>
<P>The California Performance Review Commission has scheduled a public hearing
on the environmental portion of its report from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the
University Lecture Hall of the University of California Riverside. The report is
available on the Web at <A href="http://www.report.cpr.ca.gov/"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff size=4>http://www.report.cpr.ca.gov/</U></FONT></A><FONT size=4>
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