Warning that California faces catastrophic water shortages from a worsening drought, Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday upbraided state lawmakers for failing to rally behind a proposed $9.3 billion water bond for the November ballot.
Feinstein has joined Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling for major improvements to state water storage and delivery systems. But their water bond plan has run aground in the Legislature.
Lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have been loath to support the program, which would include $3 billion for water storage and $1.9 billion to repair levees and restore the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Legislative efforts to place the measure on the November ballot have also stumbled amid the state's bitter budget standoff.
In a speech to the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Feinstein urged lawmakers to end the budget stalemate and put the water infrastructure proposal on the ballot.
She warned that that the state's water supply is drying up, with a decreasing Sierra snowpack that could shrink by 40 percent by 2050 due to global warming.
"The last major addition to California's water systems was in the 1960s," said Feinstein, who parts with fellow Democrats in calling for new dams and other storage. "Our state had 16 million people then. We have 38 million now, and we have the same water infrastructure."
Feinstein, a gubernatorial candidate in 1990, is drawing attention over whether she will run for California's top job in 2010. She said Tuesday she is happy in the Senate and plans to seek re-election in 2012.
The senator, who joined Schwarzenegger in meeting with legislators in February, said she believed "they would come together on a bipartisan plan" to address California's water shortages.
"They didn't," she said. "And it just seems that the issue becomes one of ideological purity rather than political solutions."
She said she hoped fellow Democrats don't block the water bond. She underscored her argument by describing a recent helicopter flight with President Bush when they passed over a half-full Shasta reservoir and devastating wildfires.
"This is the state of my birth. I have never seen it in this condition, with the dryness, the fires … the deteriorating snowpack," she said. "There's every overt danger signal our water infrastructure is inadequate."
Call Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5539.
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