Question of the Week: California Drought
These questions are culled from phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails sent to my Thousand Oaks, Solvang, and Washington offices. Each week I will add another question and answer.
Week ending October 2, 2009
• Question: What can be done to help alleviate the drought in California?
→ Answer: The House Committee on Natural Resources, of which I am a senior member, recently held a hearing on the California drought and the federal response. During this hearing I made the argument that the current drought in California is largely being driven by regulatory enforcement of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Environmental organizations have consistently blamed the Delta water pumps as the main cause for delta smelt decline, and have even been successful in using the federal court system to get increased amounts of water re-allocated to the delta smelt habitat, even causing 3.6 billion gallons of fresh water to be pumped into the ocean. Unfortunately, even with additional water allocations into delta smelt habitat areas, we are still seeing a decline in their population.
There is no reason we should have to watch 3.6 billion gallons of fresh water being pumped into the ocean while many irrigation districts throughout the state are getting zero water deliveries. As the Co-Chair of the Animal Rights Caucus, you will not find a bigger protector of animals in Congress. However, I have a problem when people cannot find work, all in a misguided and failing attempt to save a three-inch fish.
It is time we look at the other possible reasons that this fish is going extinct. Maybe it is the thousands of gallons of ammonia dumped into the delta from water treatment plants or the predation by non-native fish, such as the striped bass. Either way, it is very clear that reducing or stopping the use of Delta pumps is not the solution to rescuing the delta smelt population.
In reaction to this situation, I joined many of my fellow California representatives in sending a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar requesting tangible actions that would actually provide water to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. More specifically, this letter calls for construction to begin immediately on two projects that would help alleviate the drought situation throughout California.
Please be assured that I will continue to monitor this situation and fight for the water the state of California so desperately needs.
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