Prop. 3: California water projects bond measure goes down to defeat

Backers mourned the loss of Proposition 3 on Wednesday, the nearly $9 billion bond measure that would have modernized old dams, restored tainted watersheds and created desalination plants, among dozens of other water projects throughout the state. Prop. 3 — backed by state water agencies, farming organizations, social justice advocates and environmentalists, but not the Sierra Club — lost by 52 to 48 percent, a difference of 320,000 votes out of nearly 7 million ballots cast. “I think it’s disappointing,” said David Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit Save The Bay. “We need to do a lot of work to make sure we have clean water for people and wildlife in a time of rapid climate change. (This measure) would have gotten us a long way toward providing clean drinking water to people who don’t have it in the Central Valley.”...MORE