FACTBOX: California's new water policy package

(Reuters) - California legislators on Wednesday passed a package of water policy bills and an $11 billion bond that some see as the state's biggest water move in half a century.

Critics say the measures are filled with loopholes and the bond was a way to buy support.

Water fights stretch back over a century in California. Here are some details about the water package and California's past:

* The $11 billion bond, which must be approved by voters, is expected to be used to build a new dam to hold more water as climate change leaves the state with less snow and more rain. Environmentalists say the dam is not needed. The bond would also help pay for environmental restoration, projects for regions to share water resources, and measures to alleviate drought.

* A new Delta Stewardship Council will be in charge of the Sacramento Delta, the largest water source and wetlands on the West Coast, which empties into San Francisco Bay. New laws make possible a controversial canal around the Delta that proponents say will improve water quality for users and the environment. Cost estimates range from a few billion to tens of billions of dollars. Delta residents see it as a water grab.

* The new projects would be the biggest since the canals and dams of the State Water Project in the 1960s, when California had 18 million people. Today the population is 38 million, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expects it to rise to 50 million in 15 years -- when he expects the new projects to be completed.

* Supporters say the package changes how California approaches water, by treating it as a limited resource. Groundwater monitoring, more staff to enforce water theft laws and a push to cut reliance on the Delta all further that argument.

* Opponents see loopholes such as the lack of specific targets for water cuts by agriculture, the biggest water user by far, and limited powers for the Delta Stewardship Council. They are also skeptical of whether legislators supported the package or pork-barrel spending -- the size of the bond proposal rose to more than $11 billion from $9.4 billion in a matter of days.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)