Water Bond 2010

Sierra Club California Opposes The Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010

water This November, California voters will vote on an $11.1 billion water bond. Sierra Club California opposes the water bond and urges voters to reject it.

This bond would obligate the state to pay back more than $800million in bond debt every year for the next 30 years. These payments would further stress our general fund, providing $800 million less for schools, parks, social services, police protection and fire services. It seems unwise to add these huge annual payments to a budget with a projected shortfall of $21 billion by 2011.

Certainly the state must invest in maintaining and improving our water infrastructure. Since 1996, California voters have approved over $14.3 billion in water-related bonds. To this day, $7.1 billion of those bond dollars have not been spent. Shouldn't the state spend this money prior to asking the voters to authorize more water bonds?

This proposed bond would not address our water problems in the most efficient way. It allocates only $250 million for conservation, but includes $4 billion to build new dams and expand existing ones. California can't afford $4 billion to finance environmentally destructive projects. Dams harm fish and other wildlife, reduce biodiversity and harm the natural habitat. They are also inefficient: each year more than a half million acre-feet of water evaporate from reservoirs, unused.

The bond does not do what is necessary to solve our water problems by promoting low cost and efficient solutions like conservation, water recycling, storm water recapture and the cleanup of polluted groundwater basins that will benefit local communities and save money. Voting no on this water bond in November will protect our precious environment and precarious fiscal condition.

Face Sheet

Initiative Language

Desert Sun: Vote No on the Water Bond: There are more efficient and cheaper ways to do this (February 21, 2010)

Poll Shows Voters Ready to Flush $11 Billion Water Bond in November