SACRAMENTO, California — A state lawmaker on Wednesday paused her bill extending the state Department of Water Resources’ water rights permit after it got caught up in a controversy over a proposed tunnel diverting water from Northern California to Southern California.
What happened: Assemblymember Lisa Calderon withdrew her bill, AB 2215, from its scheduled hearing in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, according to her chief of staff Mike Dayton. He said the committee’s proposed changes to the bill “weren’t consistent with our intentions.”
Calderon’s bill would have given the Department of Water Resources until 2046 to build more infrastructure to use more of its State Water Project water rights. The State Water Project is the massive system of pumps and aqueducts that transports water around the state to 27 million people.
The deadline to complete the work under a past water permit was 2009. The Department of Water Resources has petitioned the Water Resources Control Board to extend it, first in 2009 and then in 2025, but the board has not yet made a decision.
