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OCTOBER 2003
C A L I F O R N I A
TODAY
Administration T
Governor Davis has been a strong proponent of environmental protection and leaves behind a long list of environmental successes. Mr. Schwarzenegger has also made strong commitments to environmental protection in his campaign and seems to understand that a healthy environment is key to a healthy economy. The first test of his willingness to carry out his campaign promises will be his environmental appointments. PCL stands ready to help the new Governor protect and improve California's environment
Jan Chatten-Brown
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CALIFORNIA TODAY (ISSN 0739-8042) is the bimonthly newsletter of the PLANNING AND CONSERVATION LEAGUE AND THE PCL FOUNDATION 926 J Street, Suite 612, Sacramento, CA 95814 916-444-8726 FAX 916-448-1789
environment." The plan also calls for "tough enforcement" of California's existing environmental laws. The plan provides some specific steps that the new administration would take through executive action, or support if presented bills by the legislature. What is not clear is the degree to which these aggressive and positive planning and environmental protection actions are consistent with or contrary to the new administration's efforts in other areas, such as economic development, eliminating the car tax, proposing and adopting a balanced budget without increasing taxes or cutting education. What is known is that we are entering a time where there are no roadmaps as to where the state is going, or how the new administration intends to get there. The practical challenges of proposing an honest budget that eliminates the car tax ($4 billion in lost revenue), does not raise existing taxes nor propose new taxes, and actually increases spending in public education, are enormous. The structural deficit in the budget alone is nearly $10 billion. As California's only statewide planning and environmental coalition, the Planning and Conservation League and the PCL Foundation will participate in all aspects of setting public policy in this new era. We are currently involved in discussions with members of the Governor-elect's transition team. We will be active in the legislative and regulatory arenas (PCL), and we will be active in the research and the tough work of implementing environmental programs in communities throughout the state (PCLF). As you will see from reading this edition of California Today, PCL and PCLF are having a very successful year with regard to advancing an aggressive package of environmental and planning bills. We are, at the same time, taking on significant new projects ranging from developing strategies to thwart the federal government's relentless assault on California's environment, to reducing children's exposure to lead in urban areas. As the Executive Director of these two organizations, I arrive at work each day with great optimism and enthusiasm. I do so because of the talented staff that works here. A staff that takes on the most daunting planning and environmental challenges of the day, and finds creative, thoughtful and practical solutions that advance good public policy. With the arrival of a new administration, we will renew our efforts to represent you well, to be at the center of the public policy decision-making venues, and to adhere to our principles that have guided us so well for nearly forty years. However, in order to be effective, we need your support and help. It is likely that we will have to add personnel resources in order to meet the challenges that will appear on every front. It is likely that the new administration will need very constant and effective pushing from the environmental community in order for them to walk an environmental line. Please help us rise to these new challenges. Please help us build a stronger and more effective PCL by making a contribution today. Thank you for your continued support.
E-MAIL ADDRESS: pclmail@pcl.org WEB ADDRESS: http://www.pcl.org PCL is a membership organization devoted to the passage of sound environmental and planning legislation in California. Membership is $35 a year, and includes a subscription to CALIFORNIA TODAY. Periodicals postage paid at Sacramento, CA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes for CALIFORNIA TODAY to the PCL office: 926 J Street, Suite 612, Sacramento, CA 95814. PCLF BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS DAVID HIRSCH, Chairman ROBERT KIRKWOOD, Secretary-Treasurer HARRIET BURGESS, Trustee COKE HALLOWELL, Trustee ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ, Trustee ANDREA SUMITS, Trustee GERALD H. MERAL, Ph,D., President PCL BOARD OF DIRECTORS SAGE SWEETWOOD, President KEVIN JOHNSON, Senior Vice President GARY PATTON, Vice President, Administration J WILLIAM YEATES, Secretary-Treasurer REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS ELISABETH BROWN, Orange County PHYLLIS FABER, Central Valley DOROTHY GREEN, Los Angeles ORGANIZATIONAL BOARD MEMBERS American Farmland Trust Archaeological Conservancy Audubon Society; Bay Area Chapters California Association Of Bicycling Organizations California Association Of Local Conservation Corps California Native Plant Society California Outdoors Californians Against Waste Community Conservancy International Greenbelt Alliance Heal The Bay Laguna Greenbelt Inc. League To Save Lake Tahoe Marin Conservation League Mono Lake Committee Mountain Lion Foundation Mountains Restoration Trust Save San Francisco Bay Association Southern California Agricultural Land Foundation Train Riders Association Of California PCL STAFF FRED KEELEY, Executive Director CORTNEE BEGGS, Administrative Associate ALEXANDRA BORACK, Administrative Associate TYRONE BUCKLEY, Diversity Program Coordinator GUSTINE CHAVEZ, Administrative Director MARC DE LA VERGNE, Associate Executive Director KAREN DOUGLAS, General Counsel MARION GUERARD, Legislative Assistant REBECCA HARRIS, Development Director TIM McRAE, Special Projects Director EDDY MOORE, Transportation Director DAVID SHOREY, Membership Coordinator CHRISTOPHER SMEDLEY, Staff Accountant MELISSA WHEELER, Administrative Associate CALIFORNIA AFFILIATE, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
PCL Takes on
Stormwater Pollution
PCL Foundation releases Stormwater Guide; PCL sponsors legislation to address stormwater pollution
he PCL Foundation proudly announces its most recent publication, Stormwater Pollution: Causes, Impacts and Solutions. Stormwater Pollution explains that stormwater pollution is the result of rain washing pollutants from our rooftops, streets, lawns, and fields into Californias streams, rivers, and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. The report focuses on urban runoff, the effect of stormwater in Californias increasingly urban landscape on the health of humans and our environment. Finally, the report recommends that local governments have greater ability to raise funds to reduce the health, economic, and environmental threats posed by stormwater pollution. Stormwater is the primary source of coastal pollution in southern California. Stormwater runoff is the number one known source of beach closure days and beach warning days, which occur when indicator bacteria exceed levels established by the state. These closures have the effect of diminishing tourist revenue - Huntington Beach alone lost over $20 million in tourist revenue in 1999 due to beach warning days and beach closure days. PCL has teamed up with Assemblymember Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) to sponsor Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, a bill introduced in the 2003-04 legislative session. ACA 10 proposes to implement to the primary recommendation of our Stormwater Pollution guide. The recommendation is to amend the California constitution to allow local governments to raise fees on property owners without a two-thirds vote of the people in order to fund prevention and treatment programs that reduce stormwater and urban runoff pollution. It is necessary to change the constitution because Proposition 218, passed by the voters in 1996, limited the ability of cities and counties to raise such fees without a two-thirds vote (a nearly impossible threshold). ACA 10 has passed through its first two committees and awaits action on the Assembly floor. The Assembly can take it up at any time when it returns in 2004. ACA 10, like all constitutional amendments, will need a twothirds majority vote in both houses of the legislature and then majority approval of the voters in order to become law. PCLF has laid out the case for why this change is necessary; PCL will be fighting next year to see it happen.
For more information, please contact Tim McRae, PCL Special Projects Director, at (916) 313-4523 or tmcrae@pcl.org. 3
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To help fund the restoration plan, the legislation authorizes a precedent-setting arrangement where the State will sell IID water and dedicate the profits - estimated at $290 - 350 million dollars -- to the Sea. New fees on interim surplus water and on future water transfers from IID will also help fund the restoration plan. PCL General Counsel Karen Douglas, a lead negotiator of this agreement for environmental groups, said "Two years ago, a head-on collision between the biggest long-term agriculture to urban water transfer in the country and the environment seemed inevitable." Since then, the deal has been rewritten to protect the
Salton Sea and establish unprecedented environmental conditions on the water transfer. "This sends a strong message that water plan-
"This sends a strong message that water planners must address the environmental consequences of water transfers."
ners must address the environmental consequences of water transfers," Douglas said. Two years ago, when Douglas first began working to protect the Salton Sea, the outlook for this troubled oasis was very bleak. The proposed transfer threatened to significantly cut inflows to the Sea, sharply increasing salinity and exposing up to 80 square miles of seabed. This was a recipe for environmental disaster, not only for birds and wildlife, but also for people who would be exposed to blowing dust from the dried-up Sea. The region already suffers some of the worst air quality in California. However, the water transfer seemed almost inevitable. It was a fundamental part of the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), which quantified water
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plan submitter. The maps will also be required to contain information on silvicultural prescription (i.e. whether the past timber harvest was a clear cut or a selective cut) and on the location of probable future timber harvests. This information will make it much easier for reviewers of timber harvest plans to see where cumulative impacts of logging are likely to be felt.
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n the controversial October 7th ballot, Californians were asked to make some difficult choices. At the same time we were deciding whether or not to recall our Governor, Ward Connerlys Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color, or National Origin (CRENO) Initiative was on the ballot as Proposition 54. Proponents were calling it the Racial Privacy Initiative. The deceptively named initiative was not about privacy but about denying access to critical information. The proponents of the initiative claimed that it was a major step in creating a color-blind society. The problem is that we do not yet live in a society where race and ethnicity are not an issue. Disparities in health care, education, law enforcement, and environmental protection prove it. Not knowing about societal inequities will not make them go away.
severely harmed if the proposition had passed. People of color are bearing a disproportionate burden of Californias environmental pollution. If the proposition had passed, the state would no longer have had access to information vital to examining whether or not its environmental laws were equally protecting all Californians. We have made great gains in California in acknowledging that race is an issue in environmental protection. Proposition 54 would have been a huge step backward. For example, the proposition would have prohibited state and local government from gathering
race-based information on exposure to toxic materials. Childhood exposure to lead is a serious problem, one that has been shown to be prevalent in communities of color. Even at low levels, it reduces a persons intelligence, makes it difficult to concentrate or pay attention, and harms hearing. Fighting childhood exposure to lead is a very difficult endeavor and many people are struggling to solve the problem. Clean up efforts are expensive and legislative solutions are difficult to achieve. The initiative would have put yet another barrier in solving an already difficult problem. The fact is, race-based data does matter if we are going to continue our efforts to achieve social and environmental justice. For more information, contact Tyrone Buckley, PCL Diversity Coordinator, at (916) 313-4538 or tbuckley@pcl.org.
PCLs effort to address Environmental Justice concerns through its Diversity Program would have been
Prop 54
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
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The
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he impacts of unfettered suburban sprawl and urban disinvestments on the California landscape and on its people are profound and growing. With 11.3 million new residents expected over the next two decades, the need to respond with policies that manage our states growth in more sustainable and equitable patterns is acute. The PCL Foundation believes that now is the time to take action, and that further delay will only be catastrophic for our states land and people. Among state officials, legislators, business leaders, advocacy groups, and citizens, there exists growing interest in taking action. Many have written persuasively about the problems posed by Californias sprawling and poorly planned growth. Innumerable conferences have been held to discuss these problems and what to do about them. Among those who favor land use reform, agreement generally has been reached on the basic principles of more sustainable and socially equitable land use and development. The problem is that the key public policy changes that
PLANNING AND CONSERVATION LEAGUE PCL FOUNDATION 926 J Street, Suite 612 Sacramento, California 95814
C A L I F O R N I A
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