[Sosfbay-discuss] Santa Clara Valley Water District Board Hearing on Wednesday.

[Wes Rolley]

The Santa Clara Valley Water District held a special meeting on Tuesday, 
April 28th.  The purpose was to review the Annual Report on Protection 
and Augmentation of Water Supplies for 2009 and Recommended Groundwater 
Production Charges for Fiscal Year 2009 - 2010.  Copies of the report at 
http://tinyurl.com/c52q73

The assumptions  on which the water  district report is based are 
seriously flawed. They cite a snowpack number of 90% and the actual 
reading last week was ~60%.   There are other problems, but that is the 
most obvious.

Then, a circuit court judge in Santa Clara County has declared that the 
Water District's entire process of charging the owners of wells for 
pumping water out of the aquifer is unconstitutional.  I have not 
reviewed this decision in it's entirety, but it is of interest for 
Morgan Hill, which acquires it's water from wells, pumping from the 
aquifer that is recharged from water district maintained  percolation 
ponds.

The process of water governance is broken in California, maybe more so 
than the physical infrastructure (e.g. delta levees that have not been 
repaired in 50 years). 

The Water District will hold another review in Morgan Hill at the 
Community Center on Wednesday Evening.  I would like to see a good 
turnout.  This is not just a Morgan Hill issue... so come on down.

More than that, I believe we need to have more Greens become actively 
involved with the Water issues.  As we look at elections in 2010, it 
would be great to have Greens running for one of the seats on the board 
that are up for re-election.  Given the seriousness of the issue, we 
also need to make sure that this becomes an issue for those Supervisors 
who are up for re-election or replacement (Don Gage is term limited 
out... Pat Dando rumored to be interested in running.)  The Board of 
Supervisors appoints 2 members of the 7 member board and that is a 
determining factor in maintaining the status quo.  Currently, the 
appointees are old politicians like Sig Sanchez who need to be reclining 
in their rocking chairs at home rather than sleeping through 
presentations at board meetings (as has been described to me.)