Boundary Adjustment to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, today I introduce legislation to adjust the Congressional designated boundary of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area.

In March 2019, Congress enacted into law (Public Law 116-9) my legislation with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein designating California's first national heritage area. The Delta is a crown jewel of our state and an iconic working landscape, which my family has been fortunate to call home for over 40 years. It is the most productive watershed in the western United States and among the most ecologically important in the Western Hemisphere. Together, we must safeguard the Delta and the historic communities that make it such a special place.

The legislation I introduce today, at the request of the City of Rio Vista, would expand the National Heritage Area's boundary to include approximately 62 acres of adjacent publicly owned land encompassing: the decommissioned United States Army Reserve Center (City of Rio Vista), U.S. Coast Guard Station Rio Vista, Beach Drive Wastewater Treatment Plant (City of Rio Vista), and Sandy Beach County Park (Solano County).

Two of these parcels--the decommissioned United States Army Reserve Center and Beach Drive Wastewater Treatment Plant--are owned by the City of Rio Vista but technically outside the city limits. As such, it appears that these parcels were omitted inadvertently when the National Park Service prepared the legislative map for the then-proposed Delta National Heritage Area in 2010.

I hope that Congress will enact my boundary adjustment before California's Delta Protection Commission completes the management plan for the National Heritage Area.

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