Medios de comunicación
Gray Declares Victory in Effort to Keep Reservoir Projects Moving Forward
By Bill McEwen, News Director
May 27, 2022
Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) put together a bipartisan coalition to defeat a bill that would have prohibited the State Water Board from issuing new water right permits.
“It took a broad coalition to defeat the bill. The San Joaquin Valley doesn’t always have enough friends in the state Legislature to stop bad bills, but we did today.”
“It took a broad coalition to defeat the bill. The San Joaquin Valley doesn’t always have enough friends in the state Legislature to stop bad bills, but we did today.” — Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced.
The bill’s defeat came in a showdown Thursday between Gray and the author of the legislation, Assemblyman Bill Quirk of Hayward, a fellow Democrat.
According to Gray, Assembly Bill 2639 would have jeopardized new water storage projects such as Sites Reservoir in the drought-ravaged state.
Sites is one of seven water storage projects eligible for funding from a 2014 voter-approved state water bond. In March, the federal government signaled its intent to loan the Sites project nearly $2.2 billion — about half of the cost to design, plan and build it.
“It took a broad coalition to defeat the bill. The San Joaquin Valley doesn’t always have enough friends in the state Legislature to stop bad bills, but we did today,” Gray said in a news release. “I am grateful to my colleagues who took the time to understand a complicated issue.”