California Water Wars — Miller Op-Ed
San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 2010
Feinstein Amendment is a Water Grab
By Rep. George Miller
Beware of the latest attempt at an old-fashioned water grab - the last gasp of an outdated approach to California’s complex water problems.
Faced with a changing climate and an increasing number of competing demands on our water, most Californians now recognize that we cannot unilaterally change allocations of our scarce freshwater resources for one group or another without knowing first what the science says about the effects on the rest of the state.
But the Westlands Water District of Fresno is old school. It crafted a backroom plan with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Hanford (Kings County), and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater (Merced County), to accelerate water withdrawals from the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem to guarantee themselves an increased water supply.
