SACRAMENTO — Acknowledging the specter of drought, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appealed Monday for a $6-billion investment in water works, while the Democratic leader of the state Senate called for a $5-billion water bond measure on next year's ballot.
The maneuverings by the two politicians virtually ensure that voters will be asked next year to approve billions of dollars in spending for water projects -- including, perhaps, two new dams and a canal to siphon the Sacramento River.
Cutbacks are inevitable next year if rain and snow don't fall abundantly this winter, and the dueling announcements by Schwarzenegger and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) kick off what are expected to be several months of wrangling to shape ballot proposals.
The call for more spending comes as lawmakers and bureaucrats weigh how to spend $10 billion from previous water bonds.
Standing before a wind-swept, largely depleted Central Valley reservoir, Schwarzenegger said a second dry winter "will be catastrophic. It will be a disaster."
"We must get our act together now," he said. "We have to build."
The governor touted his $6-billion plan to build two reservoirs and boost groundwater storage, rework the plumbing of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, restore rivers and bolster conservation.
Schwarzenegger said his administration "loves conservation." He called it something that "we always have to do," and added that he limits his children to five-minute showers. But conservation alone, he said, will not stretch the state's water supplies enough to match the growth that is expected to add 24 million Californians in the next four decades.
California's audacious water system moves Sierra and Cascade snowmelt hundreds of miles by pump and aqueduct, with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta at its heart.
Though local water districts have recently built their own dams, the state and federal governments have not significantly expanded their projects in decades. In the meantime, government protection of endangered delta fish and other environmental concerns have crimped deliveries from those major water projects.
Water in arid California engenders bitter politics; depending on the battle, farmers, environmentalists and city water districts may be allies or foes. Recent governors have tended to avoid water policy as thankless, even dangerous terrain.
