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<DIV class=RTE>Action Alert: Help Stop Water Marketing Bill in Sacramento<BR><BR>Please send emails, faxes or letters to safeguard the public water trust<BR><BR><BR>Help stop water marketing in its early stages! A bill in the California<BR>State Legislature—Assembly Bill 1245 carried by Assembly Member Wolk<BR>from Davis—would extend the life of a bogus environmental program that<BR>uses state and federal tax dollars to further subsidize water exports<BR>for industrial agriculture and Southern California water districts.<BR><BR>Water marketing – or selling bulk water in an open market – threatens<BR>the principle that water is a public trust, part of our commons that<BR>should be managed and sustained for public benefit, not treated as a<BR>for-profit commodity. The energy crisis was a costly example of how<BR>easily markets can be manipulated for private gain, at a huge expense
to<BR>society and the environment. We cannot afford to make the same mistake<BR>with water.<BR><BR>The State of California holds all water resources in trust for the<BR>people of California. No individual or company is able to own, buy or<BR>sell water. Various entities have rights to use water, not to own it.<BR>When residents pay their water bills they pay for the service of the<BR>water delivery, not the water itself. A new trend, however, of water<BR>marketing is emerging in California under ambiguous titles: “water<BR>transfers” and “environmental water account.”<BR><BR>Assembly Bill 1245 would extend through 2009 the so-called Environmental<BR>Water Account Fund. The EWA Fund makes the state of California<BR>(Department of Water Resources) a water market auctioneer. The EWA Fund<BR>would commodify water, allowing for its purchase and sale independent of<BR>the service of
providing water.<BR><BR>For a more detailed description of how the EWA has benefited private<BR>business to the detriment of the environment and taxpayers, please see<BR>our letter to the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee available<BR>online here: <A href="javascript:ol('http://www.citizen.org/documents/PubCitOpposeAB1245.pdf');"><FONT color=#000099>http://www.citizen.org/documents/PubCitOpposeAB1245.pdf</FONT></A><BR><BR>Please help stop this bill by writing or calling the bill’s author and<BR>the Assembly Committee on Appropriations where the bill will be heard on<BR>May 11 at 9am in room 4202 of the State Capitol. A sample letter and the<BR>addresses are included below.<BR><BR><BR>SAMPLE LETTER<BR><BR><BR>Dear Chairwoman Chu and Committee Members,<BR><BR>Assembly Bill 1245 misappropriates state tax dollars to pay water<BR>contractors to comply with federal endangered
species law. Department of<BR>Water Resources information shows that the Environmental Water Account<BR>has cost state taxpayers between $20 and $50 million a year.<BR><BR>The program is intended to protect endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin<BR>Delta fish species and provide water supply reliability for water<BR>contractors downstream of the Delta. Over the past four years of this<BR>program’s implementation, however, fish populations have plummeted to<BR>record lows while water exports have reached record highs. Clearly the<BR>program is not working.<BR><BR>Moreover, much of the taxpayer funds flowing south to contractors have<BR>gone to a private business that is owned by one of the 50 wealthiest<BR>individuals in Los Angeles, Westside Mutual Water Company. Westside<BR>operates exclusively for Paramount Farming Company, the largest<BR>privately owned agribusiness in the state. Paramount
is perhaps the<BR>single largest contractor for State Water Project water through the Kern<BR>County Water Agency. Paramount can thus benefit doubly from the EWA: by<BR>selling water to the EWA through Westside, and then receiving EWA water<BR>from the state, courtesy of the taxpayers. The EWA Fund turns the state<BR>of California into a water market broker, thus threatening the state’s<BR>ability to safe-guard our public trust water resources.<BR><BR>I respectfully request that you vote no on AB 1245.<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>ADDRESSES<BR><BR><BR>Chairwoman Judy Chu<BR>California State Assembly<BR>Committee on Appropriations<BR>State Capitol<BR>P.O. Box 942848<BR>Sacramento, CA 94248-0001<BR>Rm 2114<BR>Fax: 916.319.2181<BR>Phone: 916-319-2049<BR><BR>Assembly Member Lois Wolk<BR>State Capitol<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></div></html>