|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D., Alamo) is treading the water maze along with the rest of the state legislators this week as they study Assembly and House bills that aim at overhauling the state’s water system.
Buchanan talked in an interview Oct. 14 about the size of the conveyance – otherwise known as a peripheral canal – being proposed to move water around the Delta to a pumping station to be sent to Southern California.
“It would convey 15,000 cubic feet of water per second if built to the maximum size,” she said.
Its width would vary from 500 feet to 1,000 feet; it would require a 1,300-foot right of way; and it would be more than 48 miles long, going from the Sacramento River to the Tracy Pumping Plant. (See chart.)
“We have to figure out how much water we need in the Delta,” Buchanan said.
U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled Aug. 31 to restrict water deliveries from the Delta to the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California to protect its smelt.
Smelt are used to monitor the general health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and surveys by the Department of Fish and Game show the smelt have declined to their lowest ever population level. Other species are also declining, including Central Valley Chinook salmon, due to increased toxic chemicals and invasive species.
Buchanan said that 90 percent of fish species on the West Coast live in the Delta, which is fed by fresh water from the Sierra snowpack and salt water from the ocean to provide the perfect mix of nutrients.
“It’s a very complex ecosystem,” she said.
She wants to make sure that any water sent down south is truly excess water.
“One, I want to protect the water rights of the Delta,” she said. “Two, how do we finance it.”
“This is a complex issue and it deserves a full hearing,” she said. “The health of the Delta has to be maintained. My interests are protecting the Delta, and the half million people that live in the Delta.”
“If we allow the ecosystem to collapse in 50-55 years, it will take centuries to recover,” she added.
She stated that agriculture must use a more efficient system of watering, as it takes 80 percent of the state’s water while urban water use is 20 percent.
The steering committee that is forming the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) has mostly members from Southern California, she noted, explaining, “There is not one Delta legislator on the committee.”
Buchanan, who took office Dec. 1, said that her biggest surprise in joining the Assembly is how acutely term limits affect the legislature’s ability to get things done.
“I didn’t vote for term limits, and I’m seeing firsthand their profound influence,” said Buchanan. “People aren’t there long enough to develop relationships.” Also they are busy running for re-election due to two-year terms or they are looking for their next job.
She thinks more state business should be conducted in public rather than by the “Big Five” – the governor; the speaker of the Assembly and its minority leader; and the President of the Senate and its minority leader.
“There’s a great deal of partisanship,” she said. “Partisanship frustrates people – they don’t realize that over 90 percent (of the budget) is impacted by the initiative process.”
“There is 25 percent (of the 10 percent) that we have control over,” she noted. “Most of that is prisons.”
Many complex issues are decided in committee with two-three-page summaries given to Assembly and Senate members. “We should get actual copies of the bills,” she said. “I’d read every word of them.”
“I think in general as a Legislature we need to find more ways to work together, to the extent we can find ways to move forward,” she added.
Although the last legislative session ended Sept. 12, legislators are busy with special sessions to address four topics:
1. Education. The Assembly’s Education Committee has begun a series of hearings on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s “Race to the Top” competitive grant program and it will have another hearing this week.
2. Water.
3. Reform of state government.
4. The 21st-century economy, including restructuring the state’s tax code. “Our taxation was designed in the 1930s,” she noted.
Despite the state’s money problems Buchanan has been pleased to be able to solve local problems.
“There have been some high spots, working with local governments,” she said.
She was able to help the Lammersville Elementary School District get funding for schools in Mountain House after a glitch in the paperwork. In Brentwood, she was able to put together a coalition so funds were received to finance the Highway 4 bypass.
“When get work like that gets done, it feels good,” said Buchanan.
Her office in San Ramon receives thousands of letters a week, said her Chief of Staff Susanna Schlendorf, and Buchanan signs each response written by her staff members. They received more than 3,000 letters on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal to close the state parks.
Regarding budget problems, Buchanan says the state has three big issues:
1. It needs to change taxation in a way to have a more dependable revenue stream.
2. It needs to change the way its budget is done, looking at the expenditure side. “We could do bills one year and the budget the next year,” Buchanan suggested.
3. California needs to have a real discussion about what it values as a state, and how to attract businesses to keep jobs and the standard of living.
“This is not a fun time for anyone,” Buchanan said. “We’re cutting programs we value.”
“The state has cut $11 billion from schools over the last two years. It’s hard – there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” she added. “I may never be there when there is money.”
Buchanan said she does not regret her run for the District 10 Congressional seat that ended with a loss in the primary election to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi. She said the polls showed people were undecided between her and Garamendi during most the race, and if she had not run she might always have regretted it. She noted that members of Congress can accomplish more because they have no term limits.
Community Briefs: Tango and Jazz at City Center | Alamo and Danville road closuresApril 3, 2026 9:31 am
Buchanan bemoans the fact that term limits don’t allow for the development of relationships. Let’s guess who wanted to limit her own term by running for another office after just a few months in the assembly.
Joan, we can and will fix your term limit next November. It will go to zero.
Rick: Agree 100% with you! She lost all credibility by running for a new office just 2 months after being elected to her current position. Voters remember these things, Joan.
Joan says, “…that members of Congress can accomplish more because they have no term limits.”
This is an outrageous comment from an elected official. Of course congressmen have a term limit. It’s whenever voters get sick and tired of tax and spend liberal agendas. Their term ends when they get thrown out of office by the voters!!!!
Do you really think that once elected, a congress critter serves for life???
Perhaps on error in political judgement does not condemn all politicians to the junk heap. I may have my own quibbles w/ the Assemblywoman about health reform issues, but as a practical voter, I feel obligated to keep educating her — not handing out unconstructive criticism — no one learns a thing if we stop talking with each other. Delta water plans will affect us all in the pocketbook, socially as well as politically. Those water bonds will suck the general fund dry w/ interest payments. My grandkids won’t get the education, social services, infrastructure , jobs, or quality of life I had because the “canal” bonds are just one more overly expensive debt this state doesn’t need right now.