Brown unveils emergency drought legislation
By Chris Megerian and Melanie Mason, Los Angeles Times
Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers from both parties announced Thursday a $1-billion plan to deal with California’s persistent drought, describing the legislation as a mix of short-term relief and support for long-term water projects.
“This is a struggle,” Brown said at a Capitol news conference. “Something we’re going to have to live with. For how long, we’re not sure.”
Millions of dollars would be spent faster than previously scheduled to provide food assistance and emergency drinking water in hard-hit communities. Additional money would go to wildlife preservation.
The bulk of the legislation would fund infrastructure initiatives that might not be completed for years. The proposal includes $272.7 million from the $7.5 billion water bond approved by voters last year for projects such as water recycling and desalination.
Desalination now. Forget about trains for a while.
While California is facing record drought conditions, Nestlé is continuing to bottle the state’s precious water, bottle it, export it, and sell it for profit.
Nestlé’s bottling plant — which extracts water for its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands — is located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, it is exempt from oversight by local water agencies and is able to keep information about its groundwater levels and usage confidential. Therefore, it’s impossible to know just how much of the limited resource the plant is extracting to export and sell elsewhere. And to top it off, the bottling plant is located in one of the most drought-stricken areas of the state.