California’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, on Tuesday criticized state lawmakers, most of them fellow Democrats, for failing to support major investments in the state’s water supply and delivery system.
Feinstein and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, in July proposed a $9.3 billion general obligation bond measure for water. It includes money for dams and reservoirs, anathema to many Democrats in the state Legislature.
“The last major addition to California’s water systems was in the 1960s,” Feinstein said in a speech to the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. “Our state had 16 million people then. We have 38 million now, and we have the same water infrastructure.”
