State Water Measure will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Southern California for open space acquisition, clean water, urban natural areas, and the Los Angeles River

LOS ANGELES (November 2, 2018) – The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy announced this week that its members had unanimously endorsed California Proposition 3, the Water Supply and Water Quality Act of 2018—adding to the long list of conservation and civic organization that support the measure.

The Conservancy recognizes that California needs a clean, safe, and reliable water supply to meet its needs as the population grows and the climate changes. Proposition 3 will provide much needed local funds to improve water supplies, acquire open space, treat watersheds to make them more fire resilient, clean and capture urban water runoff, and improve water quality in the Santa Monica Bay.

Proposition 3 will dedicate significant funds for essential local water infrastructure projects, long-term drought relief, and conservation in the Southern California region including more than $150 million for the Los Angeles River. Under the measure, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Lower San Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, and the State Coastal Conservancy would distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants to local organizations and projects to acquire open space, protect mountain watersheds, and clean and capture storm water runoff.

Southern California will also be eligible to compete for about $5 Billion in grants for water projects with other organizations in the state.

California’s severe drought and recent wildfires exposed widespread problems with the state’s water supply that can only be fixed with investments in watershed protection, flood protection, conservation, groundwater recharge and infrastructure repairs. The Conservancy strongly endorses Proposition 3 as the right measure at a critical juncture in our state’s future.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is a State Agency that was established by the Legislature in 1980. Since that time, it has helped preserve more than 75,000 acres of parkland in both wilderness and urban settings. The Conservancy’s mission is to strategically buy back, preserve, protect, restore, and enhance treasured pieces of Southern California to form and interlinking system of urban, rural, and river parks, open space, trails, and wildlife habitat that are easily accessible to the general public.