Water Bond May Go on Ballot

Lawmakers were expected to vote today on whether to place a $995-million water bond on the November ballot, while negotiations over a prison construction bond have been delayed until August, when the Legislature returns from its summer break.

The bond offers money for environmental restoration projects from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Lake Tahoe, as well as for urban streams, perhaps including the Los Angeles River.

Although California has a history of water wars, the water bond measure has no significant opposition. If it wins legislative approval as expected, Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to quickly sign legislation authorizing a statewide vote.

“We love it,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary.

Wilson and legislative leaders continue to negotiate over Wilson’s proposal to build six prisons, at a cost of more than $2 billion.

Senate Democrats are withholding approval in an effort to extract agreements from the Republican governor to reduce California’s state prison population of 140,000 by paying counties to oversee nonviolent felons.

Lawmakers could place a prison construction bond measure on the ballot or, as they have done in the past, finance prison building with lease revenue bonds.

Lease revenue bonds do not need voter approval but cost the state more than bonds approved by the electorate. A decision on prison construction is not expected until the end of the legislative session in late August.

Meanwhile, seeking to get maximum attention for California’s new budget, Wilson traveled Wednesday to Hawthorne’s Ramona Park, where he signed one anti-crime bill related to the $63-billion state budget approved by the Legislature this week.

The measure Wilson signed will provide $100 million to counties statewide, including $28 million to law enforcement in Los Angeles County. The county will receive $21 million for more patrol officers, and additional sums for prosecutors and for the sheriff to operate county jails.

Wilson signed separate budget-related legislation authorizing $50 million to help counties combat juvenile delinquency. Counties must compete for the money and use it for programs aimed at setting juvenile offenders straight.

Wilson is expected to sign the budget Monday, two weeks past the start of the 1996-1997 fiscal year and the state constitutional deadline for adopting a new spending plan.

As part of his budget proposal in January, Wilson called for a $540-million bond for various water projects. The proposal has grown to include additional projects, including $390 million for work on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, source of most of the state’s water.

Along the way, the deal has won endorsements from farmers, big city water agencies, including the Metropolitan Water District, and several environmental groups.

“What we have now is a package that has a lot of promise,” said David Yardas of the Environmental Defense Fund, who helped negotiate the legislation. “It has a lot of good stuff for the environment.”

State Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who is carrying the measure, called it “the most comprehensive measure to deal with water issues in many, many years.”

“Every region of California benefits in one way or another,” he said.

Supporters say the $995 million would be used primarily to improve environmental quality in the delta while ensuring better water quality for Southern California and Central Valley water users.

“It’s a major thing--consensus,” said Raymond Corley, lobbyist for the MWD, who was working Wednesday to line up votes among legislators, along with lobbyists for agricultural interests and environmentalists.

The water bond includes no money for Auburn Dam on the American River, and specifically states that no money can be used for a “peripheral canal,” such as one rejected by voters in 1982.

The bulk of the money--$600 million--is earmarked for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and includes $390 million for projects identified by a state and federal government task force studying environmental problems in the delta.

The group, the Calfed Bay Delta Program, is to issue its findings in 1998 for long-term solutions to California’s water situation.

An option being considered is a canal--one far smaller than the failed Peripheral Canal proposal--to move water south to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities.

The bond also includes $25 million to reinforce fragile levees on islands in the delta. Past studies have suggested that levees could fail in a major earthquake, disrupting water delivery to two-thirds of the state’s population, including Southern California.

Among its other provisions, the water bond includes:

* $27 million for restoration of urban streams, perhaps including the Los Angeles River. Cities would have to compete for the money.

* $30 million to clean up drainage ponds in the San Joaquin Valley. The ponds are polluted with selenium and other toxins from farming operations and have caused deformities and deaths of birds and other wildlife.

* $60 million for local flood control projects, $10 million to solve seawater intrusion problems in Ventura, Oceanside and Salinas, and $10 million to improve water quality at Lake Tahoe.

“They’ve done a good job achieving consensus in an area that is very difficult to achieve consensus,” said Assembly Democratic Leader Richard Katz of Sylmar. “It’s an opportunity that I don’t think should be missed.”