Senate passes portions of state water reform
A bond measure and a conservation target are OKd, but failure of other provisions could still doom the package. Assembly action is also necessary.
Bettina Boxall
Los Angeles Times
11/03/2009
Reporting from Sacramento - After weeks of negotiations, the state Senate started voting on a broad water package Monday night, passing three measures before adjourning shortly after midnight.
The Senate plans to take up the remaining two parts of the package today, when the Assembly will consider all the proposals.
The Senate approved a $10-billion bond measure that would pay for new infrastructure, ecosystem restoration in the San Joaquin- Sacramento Delta, water supply improvements and watershed protections around the state.
FOR THE RECORD: A subheadline in an earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the lower chamber of California Legislature. That body is the Assembly, not the House.
It also passed a conservation target requiring a statewide reduction in per capita urban water use, as well as a bill creating a new state council to oversee the delta, the heart of the state waterworks.
"The Senate passed far-reaching legislation, decades in the making," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said.
