Take Action

Organize your community to OPPOSE the $11.14 billion water bond, Proposition 18 on the November 2010 California ballot.

For additional information about the bond measure, or to volunteer to work to defeat it, see: nowaterbond.com

Talking Points:

  • The massive water bond package is the wrong approach to addressing California's water crisis and will only worsen the already severe budget problems our state currently faces. With record unemployment and a budget deficit spirally out-of-control, the state cannot afford to spend up to $800 million every year to finance this bond.
  • California deserves a sustainable and workable solution to the chronic water problems the state faces ranging from drought to inefficient use. Water is a limited resource that will become even scarcer with global warming. However, instead of investing in common-sense remedies, this bond wastes billions of taxpayer dollars on outdated infrastructure that will not solve the problem. California must invest in solutions that allow all regions of the state to become self-sufficient and grow in a sustainable way.
  • Instead of dedicating the water flows that endangered and threatened fish species in the Delta need to recover, the package leaves Californians with no regulatory assurance that water will be there for the fish -- even the legislatures' own staff told them this portion of the bill was unenforceable. This will worsen the fishery collapse and lead to even more restrictions on water supplies.
  • Instead of insisting on reducing reliance on unstable Delta water, the package continues the status quo of unsustainable pumping that will further devastate fisheries and lead to more litigation.
  • Instead of holding people accountable when they illegally divert water, the package makes it harder for state agencies to enforce the law.
  • Instead of asking the beneficiaries to pay for new water projects, this package relies on more borrowing and for the first time ever allows taxpayer subsidies for new destructive dams that will cripple our environment and our economy.

Amend or Oppose (federal) Senate Water Transfer Bill (S 1759) Water Transfer Facilitation Act of 2009

Write to:

The Honorable Jeff Bingaman, Chairman,
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
304 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

and
The Honorable Lisa Murkowski, Ranking Member,
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
304 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Talking points:

  • The bill would remove several safeguards that assure fish and wildlife protections under the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA). The unfortunate effect will allow the Bureau of Reclamation and Central Valley Project contractors to resell taxpayer funded water and by-pass present laws designed to protect the environment and repair some of the environmental damage caused by the project.
  • For 57 years, the taxpayer-subsidized Central Valley Project has damaged fish, wildlife, natural river resources and damaged the economic livelihood of Indians, farmers, commercial and sport fishing in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and in rivers throughout California. The 1992 CVPIA protections still have not been implemented nor followed by the Bureau of Reclamation. The proposed legislation will undo even these modest provisions by allowing taxpayer subsidized agricultural interests to profit from this public funded largesse at the further expense of our fishery resources.
  • There is no need for this legislation -- unless the intent is to by-pass environmental protections that are part of the CVPIA.
  • Urge that this legislation be remanded to the Water and Power Subcommittee to analyze the impacts of the legislation on the environment, groundwater aquifers, refuges, fisheries and water quality and to consider amendments to safeguard taxpayer funds that have provided this water that will profit irrigators. Absent this action we urge the full committee not to pass this legislation.