California water plan aims change Gold Rush thinking
* Plan makes human, environmental use equal priorities
* $11 bln bond could fund dam, environmental restoration
* California, environmental leader, lags in water
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov 4 (Reuters) - California legislators struck a middle-of-the-night water wars truce on Wednesday that could unleash the biggest spending spree on water in half a century and aims to satisfy environmentalists, unemployed farmers and the lush cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The key theme of the package is that human and environmental uses of water are equal priorities.
But critics, including the environmental group the Sierra Club, have called the bills and an $11 billion bond a pricey sham that left a new council to govern the largest estuary on the West Coast without funding or power. They said it would spark more fighting.
The most populous U.S. state is one of the driest, yet full of thirsty industry from rice farms and the nation's largest fruit and vegetable crops to Silicon Valley microchip plants. It also frequently teeters on the edge of financial crisis and resorted to handing out IOUs earlier this year. There is no guarantee voters will approve the $11 billion bond passed by the legislature.
California is an environmental leader -- from its car pollution standards to its climate change agenda -- but lags much of the world in water. New conservation rules may change that.
Measures include monitoring water in the ground, requiring 20 percent conservation and setting up a council to run the Sacramento Delta estuary, the largest wetlands on the West Coast and a water supply for most of the state.
"We're working off of laws that were established in the Gold Rush era," said Environmental Defense West Coast Director Laura Harnish. "There was no sense of constraint."
She called the package common sense management strategies, like conservation and a mandate to finally determine how much water fish and wildlife need in rivers to survive. Harnish supported it despite last-minute cuts in the strength of a bill to curb water theft.
Her group and others avoided backing the bond and the new dam that is likely to follow.
MOUNTAIN RUNOFF FEEDS RIVERS
California's water system is simple: mountains in the eastern part of the state feed rivers from snow and rain.
Dams and the Delta trap water, mostly in the north, and then feed it to farms in the middle of the state and cities on the coasts -- especially Los Angeles, whose willingness to do anything for water was fictionalized in the movie "Chinatown." Continued...
