October 4, 2007 - CAIA Director and Legislative Chair Ron Nydam attendees Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water in support of water bills.

This Fall the governor called for a special session of the State Senate to deal with the mounting water crisis in the state.  The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water heard a group of bills from two Senators.  The first set of bill presented were by Senator Perata and included a proposal for a bond to restore the delta, fix old and failing levees, and additional funds for natural wildlife and fish. 

The second bill presented was by Senator Cogdill.  This bill, SBXX3, is also a proposed bond measure that would deal with all the same issues as Senator Perata’s bill but it also includes money to build three specific water storage projects.  Mario Santoyo from the Friant Water Authority set up a group in support of SBXX3 made up mostly of mayors and county supervisors from the central valley, of which I was a part.  We met with Senator Cogdill, who authored and presented the bill at the Senate hearing. 

Then we met with one of the Gov.’s aids to get his input.  We proceeded from there to the room where they held the Senate hearing.  Each of us were given 2 minutes to give our testimony in favor of SBXX3.  The mostly Democratic committee was very critical of the bill and hounded Senator Cogdill and his aids quite rigorously.  In the end the bill was voted down by the committee. 

We will have to see where the Gov. takes this issue from here.  He still seems quite determined to develop real surface water storage.

Ron Nydam , CAIA Legislative Committee  

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