Leaving the Initiative
Last week, The Fresno Bee reported that farm organizations are split over Proposition 98, just one of the eminent-domain-reforming measures on the June 3 ballot.
At issue is a single paragraph that would prohibit government from taking private land for the “consumption of natural resources.” The language is meant to keep cities from taking water rights.
…
The [California Farm Bureau Federation] says its farm brethren are misinterpreting the measure. Prop. 98 still allows land to be taken for public use, including for “public facilities” such as water-storage projects, according to legal advice obtained by the bureau.
“The suggestion that [Prop. 98] would preclude the taking of property for the purpose of constructing a water storage or water conveyance facility because the water stored or conveyed is eventually ‘consumed’ is unpersuasive,” the opinion states.
Today’s San Diego Union-Tribune reports that an attorney for the State Department of Water Resources has come to the same negative conclusion about Proposition 98, saying
Proposition 98 “could seriously hamstring or thwart future water projects.
The Metropolitan Water District has already decided to oppose the measure, as well.
Oh, those water buffalos are overgrazing again.
I wonder iff that state will ever get into construction of the peripheral canal, before the sea rises and takes it all back as brackish marsh. We want to continue to use the 6 million acre feet of water that flows out of the reservoirs in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds. With no canal in place, we will have have NO water from the delta..