The State Senate is expected to schedule a hearing sometime this week to review the agreement the big five have hammered out on water.   Last week assembly speaker Karen Bass said that progress was continuing on the language in the drafting process.  Nevada County's Senate Representative Sam Aanestad is waiting to pick through the language in the water bill to see how it will impact the rural counties he represents.

“I want to make sure that the existing water rights that we have in the north state will remain viable so that agriculture in the north state and local communities north of Sacramento will not be adversely affected by whatever this bond language will say.”

Senator Aanestad was a member of the   conference committee on water that discusses the major pieces of legislation that will make up the package and also the two proposals for the bond language that will finance the package. He explains that the rural portions of the state have a lot at stake in this water legislation.

“As far as the importance for Nevada County, it’s not just Nevada County, it’s the whole north state. Eighty percent of the water that goes to Southern California comes from my district and that’s a lot of water that Southern California wants and needs and has the political clout to take.”

The big five, as they are called, made up of leaders of the Assembly, Senate and the Governor have been meeting to craft the final water legislation.