A California legislative committee has passed an $8 billion water bond measure that would replace an unpopular $11 billion bond on next fall’s ballot.
The Senate Natural Resources Committee approved the measure. Kathryn Phillips with the Sierra Club says the measure is the best of many competing proposals now in the legislature.
“It’s greater on making sure there’s accountability,” says Phillips. “It’s greater on making sure that we’re putting money into things that will help people in Southern California, Northern California, Central California and help protect the environment along the way.”
This bond measure would spend $1 billion on restoring the Delta and a billion more on groundwater cleanup. Storm water conservation and other water projects would also receive funding.
Not included in this water bond are earmarks for dam projects and other conservation programs favored by the agricultural industry.
The bond has passed the Assembly and now goes to Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
