Washington, D.C. Comes to Tulare

It is not every day that seven U.S. Congressional Members come to Tulare to listen to the concerns of the public, but that is what happened this past Tuesday. The House Natural Resources Committee held a field hearing at the Ag Center Tuesday afternoon. In the morning, the Representatives toured the Friant Dam above Fresno and visited the Dykstra Dairy in Tipton, which has been severely impacted by flooding.

The stated focus of the hearing was to take testimony on two water bills that have been introduced in Congress: HR 215 – The WATER for California Act by Congressman David Valadao, which seeks to address a number of water policy problems facing the Valley; and HR 872 – The FISH Act by Congressman Calvert, which seeks to have the Department of Interior take over authority for enforcement of endangered salmon fish recovery programs. HR 2419 – The Canal Capacity Restoration Act by Congressman Jim Costa, which seeks to increase federal funding for repairing existing San Joaquin Valley conveyance facilities was also mentioned as an important bill for Congress to consider.
 
The hearing featured a number of well-known Valley citizens, including MPC member Tony De Groot who shared his recent experiences with flooding and ­dealing with SGMA as a landowner in a groundwater-only dependent area. He pointed to the need for long term solutions and specifically mentioned the value of the San Joaquin Valley Water Blueprint as a vehicle to bring about improvements. You can read Tony’s entire testimony here.

Jason Philips, the CEO of Friant Water Authority, made the important observation that despite no changes in law, the Valley has lost millions of acre-feet of surface water supply due to interpretations of old laws done by regulators who are unaccountable to the public. These decisions to restrict water supplies have significant impacts on society and are being made, not by elected officials who answer to voters, but by unelected and unaccountable regulators and judges.
 
Interestingly, the federal and state officials who hold this regulatory power were invited to this Congressional hearing but declined to attend and sent in letters opposing HR215 and HR872. There was some bipartisanship on the hearing panel with Congressman Costa, a Democrat, but also a long time Valley political leader and a problem solver pointing out that these issues are complex and, while
difficult, it is necessary to find common ground to make progress. Costa also called out the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint as an important vehicle for the Valley to make progress on improving our situation.

We thank California Congressmen Valadao, Duarte, McClintock, LaMalfa and Costa, as well as Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Chairman Cliff Bentz from Oregon and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman from Arkansas for coming to Tulare to hear directly from us about the water challenges we are facing. You can get more information about the hearing as well as watch a video of the event here.