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Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

Pedro Nava: Water deal vital to Valley

This week, I joined many of my Assembly colleagues in an unprecedented effort to modernize how water in California is managed.

The bills we passed represent the most comprehensive effort to address the state's water system in almost 30 years.

It was the product of difficult negotiations and not everyone got everything they wanted, but it is an impressive bipartisan product that brought together disparate interests to reach a reasonable solution to our state's water crisis.

Having started my career in the Central Valley providing job training for the economically disadvantaged as a deputy district attorney in Fresno County, I feel a strong connection to the region.

I recently visited the towns of Firebaugh and Mendota on the Valley's Westside and what I saw was very troubling -- thousands of farmworkers who would like nothing more than to have stable work, waiting patiently in lines for food and other basic necessities.

I left resolved that something needed to be done in the legislature.

That said, this was not an easy vote.

Traditional allies were on opposite sides of the debate, environmental groups were divided, substantial compromises were made, and approving a bond measure for our already cash strapped state was a bitter pill to swallow.

However, the package passed by the Legislature on Wednesday morning will break an age-old cycle of conflict that has plagued California's water management system for decades harming both farmers and delta ecosystems for too long.

This is the first step in adapting the way we manage the delta to bring reliable water to homes, farms and farmworkers, to save California's commercial and recreational fisheries, and to meet our economic needs while protecting the environment.

The water policy bills are a step in the right direction.

In addition to setting ambitious water conservation goals for our growing state, the measures will establish a new legal framework for delta management that emphasizes coequal goals of "providing a more reliable water supply for California" and "protecting, restoring, and enhancing the delta ecosystem" as foundations for state decisions as to delta management.

This new governing structure should provide a pathway to both protect the delta and provide enough water to revitalize the Valley's farming economy.

The bond in this package will provide for drought relief, groundwater cleanup, water conservation infrastructure, and the restoration and protection watersheds.

Substantial funding will go to disadvantaged communities to provide clean drinking water and water treatment facilities that are long overdue.

Given that this package is a consensus product, it does not make everybody happy, but there is no doubt that this is a vast improvement over the status quo.

It took several decades of regional and ideological stalemates, three years of drought, and an economic crisis, but we have passed legislation that will go a long way toward improving the water supply as well as the delta ecosystem.

Pedro Nava is an Assembly member representing the 35th District in Santa Barbara. He worked at the Fresno County Employment and Training Commission and served as the Fresno County Targeted Narcotics prosecutor before moving to Santa Barbara. He maintains ties to the Valley.