Caught in a multi-year drought, California voters approved $7.1 billion in bonds last year to improve the state’s water infrastructure, and now faces the choice of where and how to spend the money, says the New York Times. The package includes $2.7 billion for water storage.
The suggestions range from building two new dams to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal for two tunnels to move water beneath a long stretch of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The state has an elaborate system of dams, reservoirs and canals, and a web of water-rights laws to parcel out water. Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada in Northern California provides water for farms and cities in Southern California.
“Big decisions loom. What parts of California’s water system, the most elaborate in the world, need fixing the most? And how can it be done in a way that helps the state’s enormous farm economy, which uses huge amounts of water, without sacrificing the needs of its cities or the environment?” says the Times. “Many independent experts, and almost all environmental groups, argue that dams would supply relatively little water for the money. They contend that Californians need to move aggressively to more modern methods of water management, reducing waste to a minimum and learning to live within the limits imposed by an arid environment.”