Photo: Sam Roberts
Several newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee and the New York Times, are carrying stories about the California legislature’s passage of landmark bond legislation intended to fix the state’s chronic water problems. While the majority of policy and funding measures focus on water delivery issues, the $11.14 billion bond contains $3.28 billion for conservation, money that would go to protecting the ecosystem of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta and to other watershed conservation projects up and down the state. (If the bond is signed by the governor, it would have to go before the voters for approval in November 2010.)
While drinking water availability and water for agriculture were the driving forces behind the passage of the first comprehensive California water bill since the 1960s, the conservation funding makes clear that the state’s waterways also offer irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat, and that conserving watersheds is crucial to protecting water quality for both humans and wildlife.
Above photo: Liberty Island, a TPL conservation project in the Delta.
Tags: California, conservation funding, legislation, Liberty Island, Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta, water policy, watershed conservation
