Water Deal May Hang on the Trees

SACRAMENTO —  San Diego lawmakers struggled Sunday to secure support for a $235-million water project, only to find that their success may depend on the fate of legislation to buy 8,000 acres of ancient redwoods in far Northern California at a cost of $215 million.

It all will fall into place--or crumble--today as lawmakers meet in what probably will be an all-night session before they leave Sacramento for the year.

As of late Sunday, the deal was far from sealed, as legislators, lobbyists and Gov. Pete Wilson’s negotiators engaged in high-stakes brinkmanship. Lawmakers apparently have linked the two issues in what could turn out to be a classic example of political horse trading.

The bills authorizing state spending for the water project and the purchase of the redwoods “will have to go out of this house together,” predicted Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco).

Burton said Southern California lawmakers who want the water deal and Northern Californians who hope to protect the redwoods will be in a position of scratching one another’s backs.

Whether the various itches get taken care of remains to be seen.

“It’s illuminating--the political process at its raw core,” said Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), calling the water and redwood deal potentially a huge win for “some of the most well-heeled” people and corporations in the nation.

Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon), who has been pushing hard for the water deal, called it a tough sell, even if it is linked to efforts to buy the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, the largest stand of ancient redwoods still in private hands.

And Sen. Dave Kelley (R-Idyllwild), another one of the southerners pushing for the water deal, was trying to ensure that the water project could stand on its own.

“Everybody wants to hang their ornament on it,” Kelley said of the water package.

The water project is viewed as vital by water officials from San Diego and the Metropolitan Water District.

Kelley and other San Diego-area lawmakers hope to persuade their colleagues to spend $235 million from the state’s budget reserve to pay for the concrete lining of an aqueduct that brings Colorado River water to Southern California.

The aqueduct, called the All-American Canal, is earthen, and a large amount of water seeps into the ground and is lost.

Other Western states that depend on the Colorado River have demanded that California, which consumes more than 20% above its allocation from the river, reduce its draw.

If California fails to act, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has threatened to order a mandatory reduction, a step that could have a wrenching impact on the lifestyle and economy of Southern California.

Meanwhile, Northern California lawmakers were involved in intense negotiations with the Wilson administration, federal authorities, and the Maxxam Corp. over the purchase of the 7,000-acre Headwaters Forest from Maxxam.

As part of an earlier deal brokered by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and the timber company, the federal government agreed to spend $250 million for its share of the cost of buying Headwaters. The state was supposed to pony up another $130 million.

But Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), one of the most influential lawmakers on environmental issues, held up the $130 million, convinced that the federal plan failed to provide enough protection for Headwaters and adjacent land.

Among the additional protections, Sher wants buffers of up to 100 feet on land both sides of streams in the watershed that would be logged, helping to limit erosion and protect fish habitat.

Under the federal agreement, Maxxam’s timber subsidiary, Pacific Lumber, would be allowed to log the 900-acre Owl Creek grove, which is near Headwaters. On Sunday, senators said they and Wilson agreed to sweeten the deal by offering to buy the Owl Creek grove for as much as $80 million.

Mary Bullwinkel, spokeswoman for Pacific Lumber, would not comment other than to say, “We’re still going to be talking as long as the Legislature is in session.”

Pacific Lumber’s effort to log Headwaters has been the focus of intense protests by environmentalists for years. It is the largest block of ancient redwoods still in private hands.

The trees, some of which are 1,500 years old, provide habitat for species covered by the Endangered Species Act, including the spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. Coho salmon spawn in some of the forest’s streams.

As an added incentive to the deal, Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), whose district includes the land, said the state will spend an extra $5 million for Humboldt County to counter economic disruption caused by the purchase.

“There have to be jobs, and there has to be environmental protection,” Thompson said.

Amid the deal-making talk, the Senate met for a rare Sunday night session, taking up several bills:

* The Senate approved, 27 to 6, and returned to the Assembly a bill favored by Wilson’s wife, Gayle, appropriating $5 million to rehabilitate the historic Leland Stanford mansion in Sacramento as a banquet and entertaining center for future governors. The bill (AB 2782) by Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek) also contains $2 million for local food banks and $2 million to subsidize the fiscally ailing North Coast Rail Authority.

* It sent to the governor, on a 23-3 vote, a bill (SB 1550) by Hayden that would require gun dealers to offer customers trigger locks or other “use-limitation devices.” Hayden said these could include a lockable gun box. The governor vetoed a similar bill last year.

* The Senate adopted, 31 to 0, and sent to the governor a bill (SB 1190) by Hayden that would require the city of Los Angeles to pay the implementation costs of an new agreement aimed at mitigating the air pollution problems caused by dust blowing from the bed of Owens Lake.