2024 California Election guide: Proposition 4 is $10 billion bond for clean drinking water to prepare California for climate change

MOSS LANDING, Calif. — Like many residents of Moss Landing, Kelli Hutten doesn’t trust the water coming out of her faucet.

“Water is a threat in my house right now,” Hutten said as he stood in front of his home surrounded by vegetable fields.

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Hutten lives in one of the many homes in this farming community that get their water from wells.

“You don’t see it visually. Our tap water is clean. It looks like you can drink it, but it’s not safe to drink,” he explained.

The State Water Resources Control Board estimates that nearly 400 water systems in California do not meet the state’s safe drinking water requirements, affecting an estimated 771,000 residents.

Proposition 4, which is on the November ballot, would provide $1.9 billion to improve drinking water across the state, primarily in low-income communities like Moss Landing.

The $10 billion statewide measure would also provide $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and $1.2 billion to protect coastal areas from sea level rise.

“Marshes act like sponges. They absorb water at high tide and then gradually release it,” said David Lewis, executive director of Save The Bay, as he looked out over the marsh between San Francisco Bay and Interstate 580 in Albany.

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“If these marshes weren’t here, we would have huge waves crashing against the edges, the levees that the highway is on would erode over time, and that would pose a huge threat to people over time,” added Lewis, a proponent of Proposition 4.

Money from the measure would also raise the level of seawalls in non-swampy areas, such as the San Francisco coast.

“This climate bond will provide a large down payment to get this thing started,” Lewis explained.

But some watchdog groups say that’s a down payment that California can’t afford.

“Bonds are borrowed money and it doesn’t seem like anyone has to pay for it, but when your government tells you we don’t have money for it and we don’t have money for it, one of the reasons why is because they’re ‘old debt that was approved by previous voters,’ said Susan Shelley of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.” “We are paying $8 billion in principal and interest,” he said.

Shelley said the state doesn’t have a good track record of getting results from bond funds.

He’s referring to the $9 billion bond approved in 2008 to build a high-speed rail network in California.

Sixteen years have passed and the system still doesn’t work.

Another is a $7.5 billion bond approved in 2014 to build more dams.

Ten years later, no new dams could be built due to strict regulations and permits.

“It’s not very transparent how they actually spend the money after the grant is made, so even though you have oversight over the bond, the oversight ends when the grant is made and it’s not that clear how the money is actually spent,” Shelley said. .

Save the Bay says that won’t be the case with the 37 restoration projects the group has identified as ready.

“If this bond is approved, we expect many of these projects could be financed and completed within the next three to four years, and that’s because these projects have already been planned, permitted and authorized, and they just need money for implementation,” he said. Lewis.

Pedro Enriquez of the Community Water Center said funds from Proposition 4 could be used to fill funding gaps in a project to provide clean drinking water to the 240 residents of Pajaro in Monterey County.

“Construction costs will be about $40 million, and the state can only cover $20 million of that, so we need extra funding to fill that gap,” Enriquez said.

The Community Water Center monitors the quality of drinking water systems across the state, including Moss Landing, which experiences a lot of soil contamination.

The main pollutant is nitrate from excessive use of fertilizers. However, there are other harmful chemicals such as chromium-6 and 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, a pesticide additive.

These chemicals are suspected of causing cancer, as well as liver and kidney problems.

“All of these contaminants have serious health effects when well water is consumed, cooked with, or ingested with well water, and it is a major risk to public health,” said Mayra Hernandez, advocacy manager for the Community Water Center.

While the state covers the cost of delivering bottled water to residents each week, efforts are underway to connect residents to the public water system.

That day may not come soon for Hutten, who not only does not drink or cook with tap water, but is also afraid to wash her baby with it.

“When you put your baby in the bath, you cannot put his head under water because tap water can threaten your child’s life,” Hutten said.