Thursday April 28, 2022
San Joaquin Valley Sun —
A coalition of water stakeholder organizations from across California joined together to send a letter addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom and six key legislators requesting action to address water issues.
The nine page document dated April 19, 2022 was signed by 18 organizations and entities including the San Joaquin Valley Water Blueprint and 10 Southern California, four Bay Area and three trade groups.
The letter laid out the need to include a $6.5 billion appropriation in the 2022-2023 General Fund budget to strengthen statewide drought and flood resilience.
The letter states, “The only way to avoid a calamitous water shortage and subsequent environmental and economic degradation is to improve the adaptive management capacity of our current water system . . .”
The letter proposes increased water efficiency, conservation and storage and makes the claim the state’s water infrastructure needs, “. . . cannot be met by ratepayers alone.”