Wednesday's Water Legislation Hearing Postponed

Wednesday's Water Legislation Hearing Postponed

by Dan Bacher

The hearing for the 2009 Delta/Water Legislation package scheduled for Wednesday, October 21 at the State Capitol in Sacramento has been postponed.

"Because we have not received new language for consideration tomorrow, we have decided to postpone the Assembly informational hearing on the 2009 Delta/Water Legislation, tentatively to Monday (10/26) at 9 a.m." said Alf W. Brandt, Principal Consultant for the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks & Wildlife. "New week's hearing presumably will be a joint hearing."

"There will not be a hearing tomorrow, Wednesday," confirmed Alicia Trost, Press Secretary for Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

"Senator Steinberg had productive conversations on water today and will continue to work towards an agreement on a package this week," Trost stated. " Once an agreement is reached language will be drafted and put into print and made public. The senate will then schedule a hearing to take place early next week to review the agreement with a possible floor session and vote later that week."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is strong-arming the Legislature to pass a water policy/water bond measure that would include plans for a peripheral canal and additional water storage. Apparently, Schwarzenegger, who has presided over the collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, green sturgeon and other fish populations, wants to build a monument to his "manhood" and gigantic ego, the peripheral canal.

As Schwarzenegger said in the Predator, "If it bleeds, we can kill it." The Delta is bleeding, due to massive exports of northern California water to corporate agribusiness and southern California, and Schwarzenegger wants to finish it off and kill it by building the peripheral canal. However, those of us who care about the Delta, its farms, its people and its fish won't let this happen!

On September 11, a broad coalition of environmentalists, fishermen, Delta farmers, environmental justice advocates, northern California water districts, Indian Tribes, labor unions and Delta cities and counties stopped a legislative package that would have served as a road map to the peripheral canal from being passed. Steinberg's constituents and Delta residents started a grassroots uprising against Steinberg's plan to build a canal, picketing outside his office for three days.

For more information about upcoming hearings, call Alicia Trost at 916-651-4188 or Alf Brandt at (916) 319-2096. For more information about Restore the Delta, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.