Come November, voters will get the chance to have their say on a bill that would increase access to California’s water supply by building new infrastructure.

Proposition 1, or the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014, would grant the state a $7.12 billion bond that would improve various aspects of the state’s resources and water infrastructure. More than half of the state is experiencing the highest drought level recorded.

“For decades, California has faced an ever-growing crisis of water storage and statewide

water management,” said Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League, in a recent statement. “The newly revised water bond gives voters the opportunity to begin addressing the water crisis and to invest in our lack of infrastructure and groundwater replenishment.”

The drought has forced Central Valley towns like Porterville to rely on the Red Cross for water due to poor water distribution. Additionally, regional farmers have cut back on production, resulting in up to 50 percent unemployment in some areas.

The bill has drawn support locally from the likes of The Fresno Bee and Mario Sontoyo, assistant general manager of the Friant Water Authority and vice president of the Latino Water Coalition. Sontoyo said Proposition 1 will be good for the Valley and the state.

“This is the first year ever, in the entire history of delivery of federal water supply, that there was zero water allocation,” said Santoyo.

Santoyo said the most important part of the water bill is its infrastructure aspect, which would allow a new reservoir to be built above Millerton.

“For the past 30 years, Millerton hasn’t been able to hold all of the reservoir, so we lost 30 million acre-feet,” said Santoyo. “That would’ve served Fresno for 90 years worth of water.”

The proposed reservoir, known as Temperance Flat, would help hold water that Millerton Lake cannot hold and would also help with the distribution and flow to various parts of the Valley.

However, opponents of Proposition 1, such as Democratic Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, say it is the wrong choice for California voters.

“Proposition 1 is the wrong investment: it does little for the drought relief in the near-term, doesn’t adequately promote needed regional water self-sufficiency, or reduce dependency on an already water-deprived Delta Ecosystem,” Chesbro said in a press release.

The release was issued by Chesbro and other opponents of the proposition, including Adam Scow, California director of Food & Water Watch, and Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

Chesbro, who represents California’s 2nd District in the northern coast of California, said the infrastructure aspect of the bill is primarily to build new dams in the state rather than generate more water, hurting the ecology and watersheds of given reservoirs, such as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.