Friends of the River Helps Defeat Destructive Water Ballot Initiative

The big win comes after FOR spearheads efforts to prevent the water initiative from qualifying for the ballot.

February 2, 2022, Sacramento, CA – Swift action and strong leadership by Friends of the River proved to be successful in defeating the destructive Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022. The proponents of the so called “More Water Now” initiative announced yesterday in a press release they were pulling the initiative from qualifying for the November 2022 ballot due to lack of funds and signatures to support the proposal.

The so-called “More Water Now” or “billions for billionaires” ballot measure would have funded water projects for wealthy landowners and irrigation districts from public funds, likely for decades, and undermine bedrock environmental legal protections to fast-track implementation. Many of the projects are opposed by local communities, tribes and conservationists for the damage they would cause to drinking water, habitats, tribal and public lands.

“Essentially, this measure had the potential to undo much of the work Friends of the River had accomplished in protecting and restoring California rivers the last five decades,” said Ron Stork, Friends of the River’s senior policy advocate. “It was pretty bold, and a significant commitment of taxpayer resources for projects that are ordinarily supposed to be paid for by the beneficiaries of the project.”

As soon as the initiative was made public, Friends of the River quickly created and led the formal opposition to the initiative by forming the “Stop the Water Scam” political committee in 2021. The group grew to over two dozen organizations, which took clear and united opposition to the threatening initiative through significant education, communications and outreach efforts. 

Despite announcing defeat, the ballot supporters vowed to bring the initiative back in 2024. FOR and other members of the Stop the Water Scam Committee are not surprised.  FOR Resilient Rivers Director Ashley Overhouse commented,

“After almost 50 years of protecting and restoring California Rivers, Friends of the River is not shocked the outdated mentality of ‘dam our way to paradise’ continues to resurface. We will continue to stress that healthy rivers are a part of the solution to the climate crisis. A state with so many dams and diversions will be of little value in an equitable and climate resilient water future. If the initiative proponents come back, FOR and the other members of the committee will continue to be an experienced, organized and united front.”

Special Rivers with Ron Blog Post:

The “Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022” tries for 2024 instead? 

The game has been going on for a long time — paying for dams, diversions, and canals with other people’s money.

One of the later iterations of this was (or is) to be the “Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022,” known by its proponents as the proposed “More Water Now” ballot measure. Its critics, including Friends of the River, sometimes call it less charitable names (“Billions for Billionaires” is one example).

Whatever the name, if passed, the initiative would set aside 2% of the state’s budget ($4 billion a year more or less) for water projects, starting with the 2014 Proposition 1 dams. With that kind of subsidy, the state could fund a very large dam every year or two or three for the indefinite future — assuming they could find enough rivers to dam. Yikes!

Well, that’s the kind of proposal that draws a crowd of concerned environmental organizations (yes, including Friends of the River) and folks who count on funds from the state budget (think education, health care, wildfire, natural resources).

Fortunately, at this writing, the initiative’s backers have officially withdrawn the initiative from qualification.

But ever persistent, the initiative backers are now talking about switching from the 2022 election to the 2024 election (perhaps counting on the excitement and increased turnout from some GOP voters to see ex-President Trump on the ballot once again).

Stay tuned. More about all this later. Democracy can be a contact sport.

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