Boxer: California's "Water Wars" Need to End

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., called Thursday night for an end to California's "water wars" and announced she is preparing legislation to deal with drought and other water challenges.

"If all of us can't get the water we need, we all feel it," she said at a symposium held in the Palm Springs Art Museum auditorium.

The symposium was sponsored by The Desert Sun newspaper and desertsun.com, the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands and the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Boxer said all "stakeholders" in the battles over water -- agriculture, business, developers and more -- must cooperate on water use and cease the "culture of conflict."

"The water wars have got to end," Boxer told the more than 300 people in attendance.

She announced plans to introduce legislation to help bring together the factions in water battles. She described four elements in the proposed law, saying it would focus on water efficiency and conservation, water recycling and storage, new technologies and drought preparation.

She also appealed for a solution for the endangered Salton Sea.

"The Salton Sea is a symbol of the challenges (we face on water) in California and the West," she said.

Urging an end to water wars, she added, "If we fight to the end, the end will come."

Boxer's speech was the keynote of a daylong "Running Dry" drought and water scarcity symposium that also included a tour a water-related sites around the Coachella Valley. A series of speakers and panel discussions were also held following Boxer's remarks.

– City News Service.