In placing this measure before the voters, the Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The state faces a water crisis that threatens our economy and environment.
(b) The state’s growing population has increasing needs for safe water supplies which are essential to the public health, safety, and welfare.
(c) It is of paramount importance that the limited water resources of the state be protected from pollution, and conserved and recycled whenever economically, environmentally, and technically feasible.
(d) The state should plan to meet the water supply needs of all beneficial uses of water, including urban, agricultural, and environmental, utilizing a wide range of strategies including water conservation and recycling, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater supplies, water transfers, and improvements in the state’s water storage and delivery systems to meet the growing water needs of the state.
(e) This measure is a necessary first step toward providing for the state’s long-term water supply requirements through a number of water management strategies.
(f) The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento San Joaquin Delta Estuary (the Bay-Delta) is of statewide and national importance. The Bay-Delta provides habitat for more than 120 species of fish and wildlife and serves as a major link in our water delivery system for businesses and farms statewide and more than 22 million residents.
(g) The state has signed an historic accord with federal officials and statewide water interests that calls for the development of a comprehensive and long-term solution for the water supply reliability, water quality, and environmental problems of the Bay-Delta.
(h) Federal and state representatives have initiated a program known as CALFED, to develop a comprehensive and long-term solution to the problems associated with the Bay-Delta, including an equitable allocation of program costs among beneficiary groups. The success of the CALFED program is vital to the environmental and economic well-being of the state.
(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 135, Sec. 1. Approved in Proposition 204 at the November 5, 1996, election.)