Building Trades News

A recent newspaper editorial noted that it would take the United States $1.8 trillion annually to renew our infrastructure, including water facilities of all kinds.

River reclamation, levees, roads, bridges, government buildings, schools, hospitals, public safety facilities, sewage systems, dam, reservoirs, coast line barriers and beaches, harbors and water systems are either in disrepair because of lack of investment or in need of new facilities because of population expansion. The problem is so widespread that the Bush Administration's National Commission on Transport Policy recommended that the government should invest at least $224 billion each year on transportation systems for the next 50 years. Currently the country is spending less than 40 percent of that amount annually. That is not keeping pace with the need.

Robert Yaro, with the Regional Plan Association for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, described our national infrastructure future, saying, "If America does not act, it will have the infrastructure of a Third World country within a few decades. Economic growth will be constricted, and the quality of life will be diminished."

However, here in California, we have a more pressing infrastructure need – water!

California and the entire southwest is dependent upon a continuous supply of usable water. Potable water pure enough for human consumption, water pure and clean enough for agriculture and water to be used by industry is an absolute necessity for the economy to work.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California received 36 percent of its total water supply from the northern California Delta Region, 20 percent from the Colorado River, which is facing cronic shortages, and 7 percent from the Los Angeles Aqueduct which originates at the Owens Valley running through Inyo and Mono Counties. That's over 60 percent of our water being imported from either a hostile northern California or from another state (Colorado) where California has been in legal battles over its water entitlement for half a century.

The problem is that in the long run the water won't be there without some new alternatives. The rivers in California can't sustain themselves much less all the current and future demands that are being made on their usual flow. The Delta region, which Southern California depends upon for 36 percent of its water, is facing a crisis of epic proportions. Water supply, general water quality, species protection, water flow, long-term availability, seasonal degradation, climate change effect on flow and sea water encroachment, Delta and ground water salinity, flooding due to increased rain fall, and reduced snow pack changing seasonal water flows are all areas being studied by the State Water Resources Control Board.

The Board's preliminary staff draft of the "Delta Vision Strategic Plan" is an amazing document, containing not only the "emerging issues" related to Delta degradation, but also hundreds of policy initiatives protecting and enhancing the Delta-Bay region and the entire state's water resources.

Every Californian should read the "Plan." Knowing how important this issue is, and how it will touch every aspect of our lives is vital to being able to make sound, informed decisions that we will all surely face in the near future. We will need water bonds and legislation that must get through both the state Assembly and Senate plus the governor – and that we will take the support of everyone in the state. Labor can be a guiding force in the decisions that will have to be made over the next decade. Considering jobs alone would warrant our ongoing involvement.

There are only so many alternatives and solutions that we have to California's water needs and if our elected officials don't finally implement a sane, balanced policy the public and economic ramifications will undermine any prosperity that we have enjoyed until now. There are 35,000,000 people in California who are dependent upon a steady supply of clean water. Wishful thinking alone won't provide it; only action can guarantee future supplies.

Finally, the largest, most costly and politically sensitive issue is the Delta's flow of water to Southern California. In 1982, voters defeated a ballot initiative that would have provided a "peripheral" canal around the Delta that would have provided water to the south and would have allowed more flow into the Delta to protect the ecology of the system and water quality throughout. The Peripheral Canal proposal pitted agricultural and environmental interests in the North against business and population of the South in a monumental and costly campaign that has left the Delta in the much worse condition today than was even predicted 25 years ago.

Now that a new proposal for a Delta "by-pass system" has been presented, the extreme environment groups that opposed the peripheral canal in the 1980s are mounting another challenge. "Stop the Canal" and a dozen others are collecting contributions to fight the state water agencies last-ditch effort to save the Delta. This is our opportunity to join together to improve the Delta and provide a sustaining water supply for Southern California.

Workers, working together with their unions, the Chambers of Commerce, businesses, contractors' associations and other non-governmental associations, are already building coalitions in anticipation of the political campaign we will have to undertake in order for our voices to be heard.

The Building Trades Crafts have a vital interest in maintaining an adequate and sustained water system in California. As the peripheral canal or by-pass system proposal is finalized, Craft members and their families must by informed and participate in the political campaign to make it happen.

As the quote "Water, Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink" from the rhyme "The Ancient Mariner" points out, we can't be left with oceans of water but not enough fresh water to supply our citizens and our economy.