Last week, in response to a reporter's question, Arnold Schwarzenegger said he and legislators are so close to a historic deal on California's water crisis that it could be done in just a few hours.
Superficially, that appears to be true. A multiyear drought, a federal judge's crackdown on pumping water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect fish, national media attention on San Joaquin Valley farmers, and pressure from the governor and even the White House have created more political activity on water than we've seen in three decades.
"Everyone agrees that we are close and that we have made a decade's worth of progress in just a few weeks," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento said after deciding not to move a package of water legislation shortly before midnight on Sept. 11.
Some very powerful interest groups, such as the huge Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, have agreed on provisions that had been in dispute for decades.
Seemingly, therefore, everything could be done quickly if only Schwarzenegger would call a special legislative session, as the White House is urging. But appearances may be deceiving. Negotiations on the intertwined issues of improving the Delta's environment and improving reliability of water supply have also revealed political micro-fissures.
Yes, some big water agencies and big environmental groups have buried the hatchet, but other water interests and other environmental groups have not, as the Sierra Club's Jim Metropulos implied during a hurry-up water hearing. "Two water agencies and two environmental groups are saying what's going to be done for 33-plus million people in California and how we manage our water, meeting in the dark of night," Metropulos complained. "That is where we're making water policy?"
Not only are enviros divided over the competing goals of saving the Delta and controlling land development through water supply, but so are farmers, depending on how they get their water, and so are legislators.
Latino Democrats want more water for poor farm communities, while urban Democrats are attuned to the Sierra Club. And Democrats are being pressured by powerful public employee unions to resist big bond issues, perhaps $12 billion, that would suck money from a deficit-ridden state budget.
San Joaquin Valley Republicans back a big bond issue to finance new reservoirs and perhaps a canal to carry water around the Delta. Southern California Republicans are leery of massive spending for environmental fixes.
So, yes, there's more activity than we've seen in decades. But without virtual stakeholder unanimity, all that political churning could just be treading water.
Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters.
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