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Voters will decide in June 2018 whether to borrow $4 billion to fund improvements to the California’s parks and water systems after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 5 on Sunday.

The bond measure, which must be paid back over time with interest, will finance boosts to water recycling, stormwater capture and conservation infrastructure as well as expansion and repairs to state, regional and local parks.

The clear waters of the Colorado River flow gently through the Headgate Rock diversion dam while boaters and Jet Skiers play upstream in front of the Blue Water Resort and Casino.

The dam quietly siphons off almost one fourth of Arizona’s share of Colorado River water and sends it to nearby fields of alfalfa and cotton on the reservation of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

Many people in Santa Clara County don’t realize that over half the water they use is imported. Even with local dams and percolation ponds to keep groundwater at sustainable levels, the county must import 55 percent of its water to meet the needs of residents, businesses and growers.

Climate change is all around us. Extreme weather conditions including recent Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria demonstrate the intensity and impact of climate change on our environment.

We’ve seen California and other parts of the West Coast fight large, uncontrollable wildfires and our neighbors in Mexico hit with violent and destructive earthquakes. Earthquakes of that magnitude would be detrimental to our State’s aqueducts and would leave Southern California without water. California only recently saw an end to the severe five-year drought that resulted in a state of emergency due to restricted access to safe and reliable water sources.

Local water officials have endorsed a plan to fix the system which delivers water to the Santa Clarita Valley from Northern California at a cost to mom-and-pop SCV ratepayer of $20 a month. The project hammered out by state officials these past 10 years to repair the water conveyance system is called the California WaterFix.  It used to be called the Bay Delta Conservation Project. Members of the Castaic Lake Water Agency board unanimously approved a recommendation Wednesday to back the WaterFix project which calls for an extensive overhaul of the water delivery system.