Prop 3: Water Projects Bond
This proposition did not pass.
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What? | |
| $8.877 billion in bonds to protect fish, wildlife and wetlands, repair dams, and fund other water infrastructure projects. | |
Why? | |
This initiative submitted by Gerald Meral, a former state conservation official, is a follow up to the last big water bond measure, Proposition 1 from 2014. | |
Vote Yes
| Vote No
|
| Supports authorizing $8.877 billion in general obligation bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects. | Opposes authorizing $8.877 billion in general obligation bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects. |
Groups that aim to conserve the state's fast-disappearing wetlands and protect fish and wildlife joined with associations of pistachio and fruit growers to contribute at least $3 million to campaign passage. No organized opposition groups have been registered.
Covering the principal and interest on the bonds is projected to cost the state and average of $433 million per year over 40 years. In exchange, the measure promises to protect not only water supply, in response to the recent historic drought, but also water quality. The drought and heat have worsened problems many small, poor and rural localities had with contamination of water resulting from farming, mining or improper hazardous waste disposal and wastewater treatment. Under the initiative, almost $1.4 billion must be spent on projects benefitting what the state defines as disadvantaged communities, to ensure they have safe, clean and affordable drinking water. An additional $2.6 billion must be prioritized for disadvantaged communities.
The initiative addresses pretty much every type of infrastructure that can be used to treat, store, convey or hold back water. Public interest infrastructure can be tenuous, but has been stirred by the structural failures of the Oroville Dam, which led to a massive evacuation last year, and dramatic images of both parched and flooded land accompanying stories about climate change.
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Data from Cal Access as of 10/30/18.
