From the House Natural Resources Committee:
“Today, the House Natural Resources Committee held an oversight field hearing in Fresno, CA on “California Water Crisis and Its Impacts: The Need for Immediate and Long-Term Solutions.” At the hearing, Members and witnesses discussed the need to resolve differences and pass legislation to bring immediate and long-term water supplies to California. In February, the House passed H.R. 3964, The Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act, a bill aimed at restoring long-term water supplies. The Senate has not acted on this bill or any bill to mitigate water problems for the state of California.
“In 2009 and 2010, a man-made drought brought this region to its knees, where communities experienced 40 percent unemployment and food lines handed out Chinese-produced carrots to the victims of senseless regulatory drought. This followed with two good water years,” said Chairman Hastings. “During those relatively good times, the House passed a comprehensive bill intended to ensure that man-made drought never returned. That bill fell on deaf ears in the Senate and the Obama Administration. Now, we are back to yet another drought and this one could be far more catastrophic than before. History is once again repeating itself.”
Most of California is in a serious drought due to lack of rainfall over the last two years. This natural drought has been exacerbated by federal and state regulations and environmental lawsuits that diverted water away from farmers in order to help a 3-inch fish. For the first time ever, farmers and communities in the San Joaquin Valley are facing a zero percent allocation of water from federal and state authorities. The natural and man-made droughts have had devastating economic consequences, costs thousands of jobs and fallowed tens of thousands of acres of fertile farm land.
Witnesses at today’s hearing emphasized the need for a solution to bring water back to the San Joaquin Valley and provide certainty to the farmers who produce the majority of the nation’s produce.
“As much as my community is tied to agriculture, we are equally tied to water. In 2009, when water allocations reached as low as 10 percent, Huron’s unemployment rate climbed to almost 40 percent. Businesses who normally hired as many as 3,5000 farm workers in previous years needed less than 600 because of the drought. As a result of the 2009 drought, many in my community were forced into food lines just to feed their families. The drought we face today is by far more serious” – The Honorable Sylvia Chavez, Mayor, Huron, California
“Due to lack of water this year, my family and I had to make the decision to ‘dry up and let die’ close to a thousand acres of producing almond trees, as well as keeping fallow another two thousand acres of open ground. Ground that we have had to keep idle for close to eight years because of water shortages. Shortages that were created and controlled by regulations that have been imposed and brandished like weapons.” – Larry Starrh, Co-Owner Starrh and Starrh Farms, Shafter, California
“We have taken tens of thousands of acres of the most productive farmland in the world out of production when 25 percent of the American population goes to bed hungry every night. The failure to prioritize, invest and plan leaves California ill prepared and ill equipped to address the human and financial consequences brought on by this third year of drought.” - Steve Knell, General Manager, Oakdale Irrigation District
“President Obama, Governor Brown, and Senator Feinstein have put forward initiatives to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to mitigate drought damage. WE DON’T NEED MONEY – WE NEED WATER! It is preposterous to offer billions of dollars to combat climate change/global warming and think that will help the California water supply. Any meaningful substantive progress in improving our situation has to begin with some common sense.” – Mark Watte, Farmer, Tulare, California
Source: Local Farmers, Community Members Call For Immediate Actions to Resolve the California Water Crisis
Here’s reactions, listed in alphabetical order:
From the State of California, the testimony of Undersecretary of the California Natural Resources Agency Janelle Beland:
Undersecretary Janelle Beland delivered testimony today before the House Committee on Natural Resources at a field hearing in Fresno on the drought and its impacts in California. The following are highlights from Beland’s testimony:
Conditions: California is experiencing a severe drought. On the heels of two previous dry years, all of the state’s major reservoirs remain well below average storage for the date. Statewide, the water content of the Sierra snowpack also is well below average for the date. Recent storms have not ended the drought, and the window for California to gain significant precipitation is closing.
Water Project Operations/Storm Capture: State and federal water project operators and environmental and water quality regulators are working together in real time to exercise as much flexibility as possible under regulatory standards to allow for the capture and storage of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). Every effort has been made to maximize the amount of water the projects could export during the storms in February and March, with the realization that this may be the last opportunity to capture and store unregulated flow during this winter season.
Water Project Operations/Ongoing Operations and Keeping Salt Water out of Delta: In order to help preserve water supplies in upstream reservoirs and limit salinity encroachment in the Delta, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is developing plans to install temporary emergency rock barriers across three Delta channels.
Water Project Operations/Need to Conserve for 2015: To maximize flexibility, DWR and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) have coordinated to exercise maximum flexibility and allow the water projects to conserve water as they continue to assess the water needs into 2015. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have also coordinated closely and worked to ensure that water management decisions do minimal harm to endangered and protected species. One primary concern has been to ensure that enough water can be directed to communities for basic needs such as drinking water and water for sanitation and firefighting. Another concern is being able to prevent saltwater intrusion into the interior Delta where a large portion of the state’s freshwater supplies are conveyed for human and agricultural use. A certain amount of flow must continue throughout dry months to push back saltwater from the interior Delta.
State and Federal Assistance for Agriculture: State officials are working closely with federal agencies to provide assistance to farmers, ranchers and farmworkers in the most impacted communities. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has launched www.cdfa.ca.gov/drought a website that provides updates on the drought and connects farmers to helpful programs.
Steps for the Future: We are taking proactive, long-term steps to prepare California for future droughts and floods. The California Water Action Plan will guide California’s efforts to enhance water supply reliability, restore damaged and destroyed ecosystems, and improve the resilience of our infrastructure. We are working daily to balance needs and interests throughout the state on the overall long term sustainability of our water resources. This plan centers on sustaining supplies of water for people, the environment, industry and agriculture. See the final plan here.
Source: FYI_ Highlights of State of California’s Testimony at Fresno Congressional Hearing on Drought
Full testimony here: Final Fresno Congressional Hearing 3-19-14 State Testimony
From Congressman Jim Costa:
Congressman Jim Costa expressed his deep anger during a hearing in Fresno over the lack of progress on solutions to bring additional water to the Valley. Costa has time and again supported policies advanced by his colleagues on both sides if they meet the simple test that they have the potential to improve water reliability. During the hearing, Costa urged his colleagues to put aside sound bites, stop playing the blame game, and get to work on a compromise bill that can clear both the House and the Senate.
“No one will bear the burden of this drought more than the farmers, farm workers, and farm communities in our Valley,” said Costa. “We will see its effects in lost jobs, in families standing in food lines to provide for their meals, in the incredible burden on mothers and fathers trying to provide for the basic needs of their family while the fertile ground beneath their feet lies dry and fallow.
“Like you, I am angry. I am angry that in the face of devastation we continue to point fingers and play the blame game, which does not bring us one additional drop of water.”
Congressman Costa has introduced The California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014 with California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, which has the potential to generate more than 500,000 acre-feet for water agencies that receive water from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project according to some estimates. This legislation aims to expedite the use of federal flexibility under the law to address emergency conditions in the state. By cutting red-tape, this bill will yield immediate water for farmers and communities in the San Joaquin Valley once enacted. The bill would also authorize $300 million for disaster assistance programs. … ”
Full statement here: RELEASE- Costa_ Cooperation Only Way to Bring Valley More Water
From Defenders of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, Endangered Species Coalition, The Bay Institute, and the Golden Gate Salmon Association:
“Today, the House Subcommittee on Water and Power Resources is holding a hearing in Fresno about the water supply outlook in California. The subcommittee’s press release clearly blames the delta smelt for a significant percentage of the water supply shortages being experienced this year. However, there have been no water supply impacts due to protections for delta smelt in 2014.
California faces significant challenges during this unprecedented drought year. Meeting those challenges will require facing the real cause of supply shortages.
The Lack of Rain is Responsible For California’s Limited Water Supply.
More than 90 percent of California is in Severe, Extreme or Exceptional drought.
As of March 14, the amount of water in the Sierra snowpack is disastrously low – as low as 19% of average in the Northern Sierra.
None of the 17 communities that the State of California has found could run out of water during the coming year receive water exported from the Delta.
Currently, the amount of water in storage in Lake Shasta – the state’s largest reservoir – is 58% of average for this time of year.
There have been no limits on Delta pumping this winter as a result of ESA protections for delta smelt. The standards currently regulating Delta pumping are designed to prevent the risk of extinction for Winter and Spring run Chinook salmon. Those standards allow rivers in the Delta to run backwards at a rate of 5,000 cubic feet per second.
Delta Pumping and Remaining Bay-Delta Protections:
Far from being turned off, the State Water Project and Central Valley Project Delta pumps are pumping 4,800 cubic feet per second as of March 18. (http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/operationscontrol/docs/delta/deltaops.pdf)
For reference, this is equivalent to nearly one standard 50’ boxcar, filled with freshwater, leaving the CVP and SWP pumps in the South Delta every second.
The Environment is Suffering from Drought Conditions, and Environmental Protections for the Bay-Delta Ecosystem Have Already Been Relaxed.
he State Water Resources Control Board has relaxed water quality objectives that protect the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Those standards already reflect a lower level of environmental protection in dry years, in deference to water supply concerns, (http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/drought/docs/022814_revised_tucp_order.pdf )
If water supply conditions remain extraordinarily dry, no flows will be released from Friant Dam under the San Joaquin River settlement, delaying efforts to restore salmon to the river.
Drought conditions have already harmed the offspring of salmon that spawned in the fall.
Poor in-river flow conditions have forced hatchery managers to truck salmon to safer waters. Conditions are so poor that lower survival levels are expected for young wild salmon as they attempt to swim to the ocean this spring.
The drought is threatening coastal Coho as well as Winter and Spring run Chinook salmon with extinction.
During 2013, California commercial fishermen faced a month long fishing closure to protect the winter run Chinook salmon. Fishermen fear that drought conditions, particularly if paired with further suspension of standards, could return California’s salmon industry to the total fishing closures that the industry suffered in 2008 and 2009.
Agriculture Revenues in 2012 Reached an All-Time High.
During 2012, a dry year and the most recent year for which comprehensive data is available, California agriculture set a record, with $44.7 billion in revenue. (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/California_Ag_Statistics/Reports/2012cas-all.pdf)
Some land will be idled in California this growing year. That, however, will be a result of drought conditions, not ESA protections.
Source: Drought Facts Trump Politics
