<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br></div><div>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> Pelican Network <<a href="mailto:PelicanNetwork@pelicannetwork.net">PelicanNetwork@pelicannetwork.net</a>><br><b>Date:</b> January 27, 2013, 3:08:55 AM PST<br><b>To:</b> Pelican Network <<a href="mailto:PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net">PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Legislature won't rubber stamp Brown's folly</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> Coastal Habitat <<a href="mailto:CoastalHabitat@PelicanNetwork.net">CoastalHabitat@PelicanNetwork.net</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><div><span></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<div align="center"><img src="cid:part1.03080800.02020803@pelicannetwork.net" alt=""><br>
</div>
<font style="font: 12.0px Verdana; color: #111111" color="#111111" face="Verdana" size="3"> </font><br>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div align="center">
<blockquote>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal
normal normal 11px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); min-height: 13px; " align="left">
<h1 id="story_headline" class="entry-title">Jerry
Brown's water plan faces mixed reviews</h1>
<div class="byline"> By <span>David Siders and Jim
Sanders</span><br>
<span><span class="org fn"><a href="mailto:dsiders@sacbee.com">dsiders@sacbee.com</a></span></span>
</div>
<div class="pubdates" style="padding-bottom: 1.5em">
<div class="published" title="2013-01-26T00:00:00-0800" style="padding-bottom: 0">Sacramento Bee -
Published: Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 - 12:00 am
| Page 1A
</div>
</div>
<div id="articlebody" class="lingo_region entry-content">
<p> Nearly lost in the flurry of praise for Gov. Jerry
Brown's State of the State address on Thursday were
a handful of tersely worded statements from
lawmakers objecting to his plan to build two
water-diverting tunnels through the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.</p>
<p>The controversy is decades old. Yet the pointed
nature of the criticism – and the eagerness of even
Democratic lawmakers to challenge Brown on a day in
which tradition suggests restraint – laid bare how
significant a test of Brown's political abilities
the $14 billion project may be.</p>
<p>Immediately following Brown's speech, Assemblywoman
Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, issued a statement panning
the Democratic governor's plan to divert water to
the south. Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, said the project
is "expensive and controversial, and the science is
not there." </p>
<p> Less than a year after Brown persuaded lawmakers
to approve a $68 billion high-speed rail project,
Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton,
said, "I think he gets the train or the tunnels. I
don't think he gets both."</p>
<p>For years, California politicians have struggled to
mediate the competing water interests of farmers,
environmentalists, Delta residents and Southern
Californians.</p>
<p>Brown may not be asking the Legislature for its
approval. The water project he proposes would be
financed by water users and permitted
administratively by the state and federal
governments, and there is no technical requirement
that Brown obtain the Legislature's blessing.</p>
<p>Yet the project is tied politically to an $11.1
billion water bond scheduled for the November 2014
ballot. The Legislature has withdrawn the bond from
two previous elections, in 2010 and 2012, and Brown
has urged lawmakers to revise the measure to reduce
its cost and improve its chance of passing.</p>
<p>Funding included in the bond for dams, wastewater
treatment and other water infrastructure projects
could be necessary to ease opposition to Brown's
plan.</p>
<p>The support of key lawmakers could also help head
off litigation by foes of the project.</p>
<p>The water diversion tunnels Brown proposes are
intended to improve the way water is diverted from
the Delta. Rather than diverting from the south
Delta, which alters habitat by reversing the natural
flow direction, the tunnels would divert freshwater
directly from the Sacramento River near Courtland.</p>
<p>Proponents of the project say it will improve the
Delta ecosystem and protect from levee failures and
sea level rise a water supply used by some 25
million Californians. Critics fear it will harm the
Delta ecosystem and farm economy.</p>
<p>Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said Friday
the administration is seeking input from every
stakeholder, including lawmakers. "We want to work
with the Legislature to do whatever can be helpful
to people around the state on water," said Laird, a
former assemblyman. "Everything is balancing
interests, and it's our goal to balance the
interests as fast as possible after including
everybody and talking to everybody."</p>
<p>As governor before from 1975 to 1983, Brown did
seek – and obtained – the Legislature's support for
a water project similar to the one he is proposing
now.</p>
<p>In a State of the State address more than 30 years
ago, Brown called the project "an investment in the
future." The project was undone by the electorate,
defeated in a referendum in 1982.</p>
<p>In his speech on Thursday, Brown spent less than
two minutes on the subject.</p>
<p>"My proposed plan is two tunnels 30 miles long and
40 feet wide, designed to improve the ecology of the
Delta, with almost 100 square miles of habitat
restoration," Brown said. "Yes, that's big. But so
is the problem."</p>
<p>Brown has Democratic supermajorities this year in
both the Assembly and the Senate, but it is unclear
how helpful that will be. Divisions over water in
California have traditionally been – and are still –
more regional than partisan.</p>
<p>Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said Brown's
proposal is "one very good option," but not the only
one.</p>
<p>"The final determination on what those
infrastructure decisions are will be something that
all members of the Legislature will be engaged in,"
the Los Angeles Democrat said. "Look, you can look
at the pre-existing plan, and if you go and ask the
120 members of the Legislature, you'll get 143
different ideas."</p>
<p>The project is part of the Bay Delta Conservation
Plan. A draft environmental report is expected next
month.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Brown is just beginning to interact with
new members of a Legislature that convened its
largest freshman class this year since 1966.</p>
<p>"I think he's smart enough and experienced enough
to know that water politics in California is always
contentious," said Jack Pitney, a government
professor at Claremont McKenna College.</p>
<p>Pitney described Brown's prospects for the water
project as "tough, but I wouldn't rule it out."</p>
<p>Even with skeptical lawmakers, he said, "You know,
governors do have leverage. There are other things
that these folks want."</p>
<p>Both Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell
Steinberg, D-Sacramento, have rallied support in
their houses for Brown before, including on
high-speed rail.</p>
<p>"I'm not ready to sign off on any particular size
tunnel, but I think the idea that we both have to
restore the ecosystem of the Delta and at the same
time provide water reliability conveyance for the
entire state by going around the Delta is true, and
accepted," Steinberg said. "And I accept it, and I'm
ready to work with the governor to figure out the
details." </p>
</div>
<br>
Read more here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/26/5142201/jerry-browns-water-plan-faces.html#mi_rss=Top%20Stories#storylink=cpy">http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/26/5142201/jerry-browns-water-plan-faces.html#mi_rss=Top%20Stories#storylink=cpy</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
------------------------<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div align="center">
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div align="left">
<div align="center"><img src="cid:part3.01060206.09060909@pelicannetwork.net" alt=""> </div>
<span id="site"><span id="article"><span id="article"></span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span id="site"><span id="article"><span id="article"> </span></span></span>
<div align="left">
<div align="center"><span id="site"><span id="article"><span id="article"></span></span></span></div>
<span id="site"><span id="article"><span id="article"></span></span></span></div>
<span id="site"><span id="article"><span id="Site"><span id="ArticlePage"><font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"><font color="black" size="2"><span id="article"></span></font></font></span></span></span></span>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote> </blockquote>
<span id="ArticlePage"><font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"><font color="black" size="2"><span id="article"> </span></font></font>
<div align="center"> </div>
<font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"><font color="black" size="2"><span id="article"></span></font></font>
<blockquote><font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"><font color="black" size="2"><span id="article">
<div class="KonaBody"><span id="intelliTXT"> </span> </div>
</span></font></font></blockquote>
<div align="center">
<center> <b><i><font color="#18605a">"In the end, we will
conserve only what we love; <br>
We will love only what we understand:</font></i></b> <br>
<b><i><font color="#18605a">And, we will understand only
what we are taught."</font></i></b> <br>
<font size="-1">Baba Dioum, Senegalese ecologist<br>
<br>
<br>
<font color="#663333">Contact: Jack Ellwanger 831
667 2025 PO Box 22222<font size="-1">4</font>
Carmel, CA 93922<br>
</font></font>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div align="left"><font size="-1"><font color="#663333">PelicanNetwork newsletters and
messages are a cultural and natural history
information service to our members. You may
remove, or add your email address at any time by
sending an email with "remove" or "add" in the
subject line to </font></font><span id="ArticlePage"></span><a href="mailto:PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net">PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net</a><br>
<br>
</div>
<div align="left"><big><big> </big></big></div>
<div align="left"><big><big> </big></big>To post an
event or a story, please send to: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net">PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net</a>,
or reply to this email with "post" in the subject
line for consideration.<br>
To contribute to PelicanNetwork, please go to:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.pelicannetwork.net/pelicanmembership.htm">http://www.pelicannetwork.net/pelicanmembership.htm</a><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small>To post an event or a story, please
send to: <a href="mailto:PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net">PelicanNetwork@PelicanNetwork.net</a>,
or reply to this email with "post" in the subject
line for consideration.</small> <br>
<big><big> </big></big></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</center>
</div>
</span><br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</div></blockquote></body></html>