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In the midst of today’s drought, Democrats refuse to prioritize building and improving water storage infrastructure, and the impacts of their incompetence are being deeply felt by Californians.
A new PPIC survey this week showed:
- Californians believe water supply and drought is the top environmental issue facing our state.
- 77% of likely voters say water supply is a big problem in their part of the state.
- 75% of likely voters say state and local government aren’t doing enough to respond to the current drought.
Proper infrastructure is long overdue. Instead, a major water storage project hasn’t been completed in over 40 years, not a single new drop of water has been stored since voters approved Prop 1 in 2014 that allocated more than $2 billion for water storage projects, and hundreds of thousands of farm acres have been forced to go fallow.
On top of voters’ anxiety over the drought, a new state audit of the Democrat-appointed State Water Resources Control Board shows an agency so overrun with red tape that it takes on average 33 months to approve grants for local communities to get their water systems cleaned up from contamination. The process takes twice as long as it did just four years ago.
The audit also found that 370 communities, serving nearly one million Californians, have unsafe drinking water from failing systems and as a result “face an increased risk of cancer and liver and kidney problems.”
A vast majority of these failing systems are in low-income communities, mostly in the Central Valley. Californians who can least afford it – during a recession and 40-year high inflation – are forced to buy bottled water in order to drink and cook or risk their health with the water at home.
The State Auditor’s office isn’t the only one calling out the State Water Board. A Water Board official recently resigned with a scathing critique of Gavin Newsom on his way out, calling his inaction on major challenges “gut wrenching” and criticizing his administration for wanting to “sort of control everything.”
BOTTOM LINE: In 2012, California was the first state to legislate the right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water. Today, Democrats refuse to commit to the infrastructure required to make that right a reality. Republicans have long advocated for funding critical water projects, but Democrats repeatedly stood in the way. In a historic drought, Californians are scared and looking for leaders who will help them. Once again, Democrats refuse to rise to the occasion.
