City Parks, Yes; Water Fight, No

Two big bond measures proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson when he sent his 1998-99 budget to the Legislature in January are undergoing significant changes in the Capitol. One is for the good, involving urban parks, and one bodes ill for solving California’s water problems.

The good news involves Wilson’s proposed $800-million resources bond issue for state park development and maintenance, watershed protection, wetlands restoration and other resources programs.

Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) has proposed that half the bond money be distributed to local government for the development of urban parks. Murray says he’s all for cosmic environmental issues such as coastal, forest and desert protection but that it’s time to devote some attention and money to the inner-city environment too.

Bond-funded neighborhood parks and playgrounds, possibly as small as a single vacant lot, could be places where children could safely go after school or where grown-ups could read or relax, Murray said. The money would be distributed on the basis of population. Other details are still being worked out, but this is a decidedly worthy goal for the Legislature to pursue.

Meanwhile, Wilson’s proposed $1.3-billion bond issue for flood control and improved water quality and supply is at a crossroads.

The measure originally included $50 million to $100 million to begin planning facilities that might be built as part of the state-federal Cal-Fed program to solve critical water and environmental problems centering on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But now, farmers, some urban water districts and the construction industry are insisting on an additional $390 million for facility development, including off-stream reservoirs.

Environmentalists who have been an integral partner in the Cal-Fed process are alarmed that the big agriculture and urban water districts have already concluded that the ultimate product of Cal-Fed will be some form of canal around the delta and related projects. They fear the $390 million will be spent planning such a scenario, triggering a rerun of the bitter Peripheral Canal fight of 1984, when state voters killed the plan and left California water development in tatters for years.

No decision on the best solution to delta problems is expected before a Cal-Fed environmental impact report is released for discussion late this year. The environmental groups say facilities should not be planned until the Cal-Fed experts make such critical decisions as how much water storage is needed and for what purpose. The future reliability of water supplies for much of the state, including Southern California, is at stake.

One suggestion is to drop the Cal-Fed planning money altogether for now and let the bond issue proceed with money for two highly popular programs, drinking water quality improvement (largely in rural and semirural areas) and flood control and flood plain management.

To push ahead now with a major amount of Cal-Fed planning money is premature and threatens to doom the best hope California has had in 20 years for solving its long-term water supply problems.