Joe Caves, the league attorney who helped write the measure, said the aim is to end several epic struggles over development along California's coast.
"The bulldozers are moving at Ballona, and the question is, can we come up with a resolution ... so that we have, at the end of the day, a chance to have a large, functioning, coastal wetland in Los Angeles," said Caves. "That's key to the long-term environmental health of the Santa Monica Bay, and if they put apartment buildings all over it, that opportunity's lost."
Environmental Focus
The bond measure, Caves said, targets land for its ecological value, not to win political donations from developers.
"Nobody has a guaranteed acquisition, nobody has a guaranteed price," he said, noting that any land bought with bond money must go through government review and appraisals.
A good share of the bonds--$1.5 billion--is dedicated to local and state agencies for desalinating ocean water, removing contaminants such as perchlorate, upgrading water treatment plants, preventing pollution and improving security at water structures.
If past water bond sales are a guide, the money would be disbursed through competitive grants to hundreds of projects such as drilling wells in North Hollywood, retrofitting machines for developing X-ray film so they use less water and installing temporary, inflatable dams on the San Gabriel River to skim off water to be stored underground.
Though there's no guarantee that voters will pass the measure, the Legislature and governor are counting on it.
On the last day of the legislative session, lawmakers dipped into Proposition 50's hypothetical money. They passed a law, signed by Gov. Gray Davis last month, that earmarks $150 million to help pay for a transfer of water from the Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego. That transfer is critical to helping the state meet a federal deadline to reduce its Colorado River consumption.
The governor has yet to take a position on the measure. But he signed a bill that dedicates $50 million of the bond money to the Salton Sea, which could become too salty to sustain fish if too much water is transferred from the Imperial Valley.
CalFed's Future
A big chunk of Proposition 50--$825 million--would keep alive the CalFed Bay-Delta Program, an ambitious, many-tentacled effort started by former Gov. Pete Wilson and U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 1994.
