A section or two from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka Obama and the Democrats’ economic stimulus package, the Senate version):
16 NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE
17 WATERSHED AND FLOOD PREVENTION OPERATIONS
18 For an additional amount for ”Watershed and Flood
19 Prevention Operations”, $275,000,000, to remain avail-
able until September 30, 2010.
21 WATERSHED REHABILITATION PROGRAM
22 For an additional amount for the ”Watershed Reha23
bilitation Program”, $120,000,000, to remain available
24 until September 30, 2010.
To translate: more than twice as much money for flood prevention – which often means concrete channelizing – than for watershed management, which can meaner greener measures to recycle water with aquifer replenishment, tree planting, water treatment, and other greener measures.
And not nearly as much money as was spent on “clean water infrastructure” in California alone, according to the Center for American Progress’s report, which put that figure at $565 million.
But maybe I just need to read more into the bill, which is, after all, over 900 pages long.
Hmmm….will try to assess what this mess of numbers means at a watershed management meeting this Monday in Ontario, called Creating Certainty in an Uncertain World: Water Resource Issues in California
Maybe the experts will be able to help…p>
Kit Stolz 