<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br><br>Sent from my iPad</div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> "Kathryn Phillips, Sierra Club California" <<a href="mailto:SierraClub.California@sierraclub.org">SierraClub.California@sierraclub.org</a>><br><b>Date:</b> January 21, 2014 at 4:25:28 PM PST<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:ema.berol@yahoo.com">ema.berol@yahoo.com</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>LETTER FROM SACRAMENTO: A Turning Point in California's Water Policy?</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> "Kathryn Phillips, Sierra Club California" <<a href="mailto:SierraClub.California@sierraclub.org">SierraClub.California@sierraclub.org</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<td><p class="Body1">Dear
Robert,</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">We are living in interesting times.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Within the last two weeks, the governor introduced the
strongest environmental <a href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=FEj_eyOqk9VIn1vxhLHDng" target="_blank">budget</a>
proposal since he was elected in 2010. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Among the highlights are about $8 million for groundwater
data collection, assessment and management; $20 million for water efficiency,
including reducing energy use for water pumping; $30 million for watershed and
wetland restoration; and more than $472 million in regional water management. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">For years, and most recently in a <a href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=VBYVnQhFv_lHgwON354SAQ" target="_blank">white
paper</a>, Sierra Club California and our members and activists have been
calling for greater focus on these areas of water policy. These are among the areas
that can, if given the right attention, resolve the state’s water supply
problems and make it unnecessary to move growing amounts of water out of the
sensitive San Francisco Bay Delta.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">
Following on the budget proposal by about a
week, the governor signed a <a href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=jCXu2ZmKtWKdbBxLoJICeQ" target="_blank">drought
emergency declaration</a>. For the third
year in a row, California's rainfall and snowfall were well below normal in
2013. Now, in this first month of 2014, the drought is getting downright
frightening.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Snowpack is less than 20 percent of normal in the Sierra.
Mount Shasta, usually topped with a strong icing of snow this time of year,
looks nearly naked. Sacramento-area rivers that are usually roiling in January
look more like wide streams, and streams and creeks have dried up.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Both the governor's budget proposal and the emergency declaration contain elements that will help Californians finally get a reasonable handle on how to manage water in this increasingly dry state. This could be a turning point in California's 164-year-old battle with itself about how to manage a precious resource.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><img style="float: right;" src="http://action.sierraclub.org/images/content/pagebuilder/Groundwater_Monitoring_by_USFWS_Convio.jpg" border="0" alt="Groundwater Monitoring by USFWS Convio.jpg" hspace="10" vspace="10" width="350" height="230">So, as an environmental advocate for an organization that
has long pressed for better water policies, I should be encouraged. And I am. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">But I'm also aware that not everyone is ready to ditch bad water policy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">The ink was barely dry on the emergency declaration before some
editorialists, columnists and Republican legislators, mostly from the San
Joaquin Valley, started pushing for more above-ground storage. Some
above-ground storage doesn't require a new dam. Some storage, for instance,
involves increasing the use of above-ground percolation systems to replenish
groundwater. But most of those who jumped onto the emergency declaration to
call for more storage want more dams.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">We are living in an era when the earth's climate is changing
because of human-caused pollution, particularly pollution from engines and
factories and power plants fueled by oil, natural gas and coal. What used to be
the norm for rainfall and snowfall is not likely to be the norm in the future. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">That's why the old ways of doing things won't work. Putting
up a dam to collect water, when there simply isn't rain or snow, won't work. Building giant tunnels, at a total cost of
more than $50 billion, to carry water that may not be there isn't a smart
investment. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">We need to focus money and effort on using more carefully
that water we do have. The solutions include conservation, recycling, improving
efficiency, patching leaks, pricing water right, and abandoning bad ideas—such
as fracking—that waste and pollute water. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">This year the governor's water budget appropriately
emphasizes regional solutions and regional resilience. It's almost hard to
believe this is coming from the same administration that has spent the last two
years touting the giant Bay-Delta tunnels. Perhaps the drought has provided a
reality check.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">These are, indeed, interesting times.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Sincerely,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;"><img src="http://action.sierraclub.org/images/content/pagebuilder/Kathryn_Phillips.bmp" border="0" alt="Kathryn Phillips" width="200" height="62"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 100%;">Kathryn Phillips<br>Director</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="Body1"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><em>Sierra Club California is the Sacramento-based
legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 California chapters of the
Sierra Club.</em></span></p>
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