AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

California Republican Legislators showed up to the California Water Commission to demand funding the $2.7 billion portion of Proposition 1 Water Bonds to build new reservoirs.

California Assembly Republican Minority-Leader Brian Dahle showed up at a meeting of the California Water Commission (CWC) with a children’s red wagon stacked-high with petition signed by 4,000 registered voters demanding that the Democrat-controlled CWC accelerate building new above ground water storage that was agreed to for Republican bipartisan support to convince voters to pass a $7.5 billion Proposition 1 Water Bond. Under the arrangement, Republicans were promised $2.7 billion of the $7.5 billion bond issue would be available to fund the state’s first new reservoirs to be built in the last 40 years.

But Breitbart reported on Feb. 13 that the California Water Commission (CWC) denied all 12 of the proposed new reservoirs, because each projects’ cost/benefit scores were under 1, meaning that the construction costs would exceed each reservoir’s benefit value.

Examples included the Sites Dam and Reservoir, off the Sacramento River. It was projected by Central Valley water districts and agricultural proponents as scoring a cost/benefit ratio of 2.11, by creating $3.5 billion benefit for 3.6 million people at a cost of $1.66 billion. But CWC scored the reservoir a failing “0.4” ratio, claiming benefit values of just $662 million.

The blanket CWC rejection of above ground storage came as a shock to Republicans, because the California Bond Accountability website reported that the CWC had already approved about $3.97 billion of Prop 1 spending on an array of Democrat-proposed ecosystem enhancements, watershed restoration and new groundwater storage.

Republicans have been emphasizing that new reservoirs are crucial, because California may already in a new drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s report as of Feb. 20, about 92 percent of the state is abnormally dry and 20 percent is in severe drought.

But the lack of water could create an immediate crisis, due to the absolute worst combination of warm January weather, followed by rain and freezing temperatures this week that threaten to destroy a major portion of California’s Bottom of Form

$6 billion almond crop and kill up to 130 million trees.

The unusually warm mid-winter Central Valley temperatures in the 80-degree range, caused almond trees to begin flowering three months early this year. But AccuWeather predicted that Central Valley temperatures would plunge to a far below freezing 27-degrees early Friday morning. There is a substantial risk that the deep frost could destroy the flowering buds, and then threaten to kill tree roots and local pollinating bees.

The California Water Commission will not make its final scores for costs and benefits regarding above-ground water storage reservoirs until their July 24^th in Sacramento.