by wu ming [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Well, at least for another year. The Sac Bee reports that the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, chaired by Yolo County's own Lois Wolk (D- Davis), just killed SB 27 until next year. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) would have established a committee to build a peripheral canal diverting water around the Sacramento Delta for export south, although it called it a "conveyance" in a modest feat of bureaucratic obscurantism.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Karen Cohen

A totally blue Bay Area delegation in the California Assembly? Changing demographics give the Democratic Party a good chance of capturing the 15th Assembly District (A.D.) seat this November for the first time in a quarter of a century, turning the Bay Area Assembly delegation completely Democratic and bringing the Assembly closer to a veto-proof Democratic majority.

After a decade without competition for the 15th A.D. seat in the Democrat primary, six people announced their candidacies last year and three remain in the race. Joan Buchanan of Alamo and Steve Filson and Steve Thomas of Danville will be on the June 3 ballot. None of them are unknowns.

The 15th A.D. includes parts of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties. While the majority of voters are in Contra Costa, the district extends to include portions of the Sacramento Delta communities of Stockton, Galt and Elk Grove, as well as Livermore and a part of Pleasanton. The electorate is 38.8 percent Republican, 38.7 percent Democratic and 18.8 percent Decline To State, according January figures from the office of the Secretary of State. The numbers represent a significant shift from 2006, when 42.5 percent of voters registered Republican, 39.5 percent were Democratic and 18.4 percent were Decline To State.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Dan Bacher

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ramped up his campaign to build a peripheral canal and more water storage facilities with four major press conferences at San Luis Reservoir on July 16, Twitchell Island in the Delta on July 17, Long Beach on July 23 and San Diego on July 24.

His proposal for the canal – and more “research” on Delta smelt - drew intense criticism from Restore the Delta and fishing groups now battling to stop the collapse of Delta smelt and other fish populations, the result of increasing water exports in the past several years.

After taking a Delta tour with Department of Water Resources (DWR) officials and others in the Twitchell Island area on July 17, the Governor directed DWR to “take immediate action steps” to “improve conditions” in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to help restore its natural habitat and “protect” the Delta smelt and other species.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

But Schwarzenegger Traveling Around State On Has Only Made Bare Beginning on Water Policy

By Peter Schrag

Last week, while Senate Republicans thumbed their noses at their governor and vetoed his budget, he was showing-and-telling new projects for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the 738,000-acre region of sloughs, wetlands and farms that many Californians don't know exists.

But of the two, the latter, with its thorny tangle of related water issues is easily the more crucial to the state's future.

Delta restoration work that the governor came to Twitchell Island to announce will be a bare start on a set of problems -- shaky levees, endangered wildlife habitat, subsiding land, rising sea levels -- that affect not only the Delta, but much of California's water supply as well. The Delta is the hub of California's water system.

Given the fragile state of the region, the governor's attention is both welcome and long overdue. It's also encouraging that the administration, in the words of Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, is now "engaged" in her effort to link flood risks to land-use planning in floodplains and to devolve some responsibility for flood damage to the local entities that authorize development there.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sara S. Nichols
snicholsblog

I admit it, I keep up on current events--the things of importance to the world, like whales in the Sacramento River delta. The kids and I scour the news every day for the latest on these large mammals in our midst. I haven't been obsessed enough to join the 10,000 people who endangered the levees in West Sacramento to catch a glimpse of this mother and calf cavorting in fresh water, but I understand the impulse and certainly, time permitting, the kids and I would have ridden our bikes 2 miles to get a peek.

The current commentary lines in our household/community on the whales are these: