California Gov. proposes $1B emergency drought bill

SACRAMENTO, March 19 (UPI) -- California lawmakers, including Gov. Jerry Brown, proposed a $1 billion plan to provide drought relief and fund water infrastructure projects.

"This is a struggle," Brown said at a news conference Thursday. "Something we're going to have to live with. For how long, we're not sure."

California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than a millennium. Things are so bad, a NASA study indicates it would take 11 trillion gallons of water for the state to compensate for lost moisture.

Millions of dollars from Brown's plan would be used for immediate, short-term relief, providing food and emergency drinking water to some of the state's hardest-hit areas. Some funds would go toward wildlife preservation, while still more money would be pumped into longterm infrastructure projects such as water recycling and flood control.

"And with extreme weather events, you get drought. And then all of a sudden, when you're all focused on drought, you can get massive storms that flood through these channels and overflow and cause havoc," Brown said.

Brown's plan has bipartisan support.

"This is just a down payment on our efforts to address the drought," Senate leader Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said. "This is just the first round."