Brown’s budget — much of which is expected to be approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature in Sacramento — calls for spending $532 million from the water bond, which was Proposition 1. The main areas where he would allocate money this year:
- $178 million for restoring streams, rivers and watersheds, the source of much of the state’s water.
- $137 million for water recycling projects, in which sewage is treated to high levels to be reused for landscape irrigation and other non-drinkable uses, freeing up other supplies for drinking.
- $135 million for upgrading drinking water treatment plants and wastewater plants.
- $23 million for funding water conservation projects, such as rebates for people buying water-efficient appliances.
- $22 million for groundwater management and cleanup.
- The bond earmarked $2.7 billion for “storage,” although it left the definition vague. “Storage” could mean construction of one or more new large reservoirs, but it also could mean increasing storage underground, in managed aquifers.
The decision on how to spend that money will come from the California Water Commission, an obscure agency whose nine members are appointed by the governor. The commission has not yet taken any votes on how to spend the money from the November bond.
Mark Cowin, director of the Department of Water Resources, said he expects the commission will make a decision by 2017. He noted that the commission has a timetable spelled out in the bond language to write regulations defining how to rank projects by the “public benefits” the provide.