Drought in the Western United States

Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the serious problem that is occurring in my district and across the American West with conditions of extreme drought. This is certainly not a new problem for us in the West and, certainly, not a new problem for us in California, but it is being particularly acutely felt. This is a problem that only our governmental intervention can solve.

Mr. Speaker, since 1970, the population of my home State of California has roughly doubled, and yet we have built essentially zero new water storage projects. So what we have in California is not so much a problem with inadequate water, but a problem with inadequate water storage. The blame for that can be shared across all different branches of government over the last 50 years.

In fact, since 2014, money has been appropriated in California for the construction of new water storage projects, including innovative projects like the Sites Reservoir that would add over a million acre- feet of water storage to California, but unfortunately none of those projects have been built.

Solving this problem is going to require an all-of-the-above stance towards accepting solutions from all different branches of government. That includes environmentalists, but it also includes projects like water storage. We are going to need to examine every single aspect of this problem to come up with solutions.

Madam Speaker, I am also very concerned that we have been inadequate in our provision for not just water storage, but water treatment in my home State of California.

We need to examine many more comprehensive solutions for treating the water, the wastewater that currently exists, to get that back into our water supply rather than letting it run out into the ocean or pumping it to other parts of our State, which is what happens in many parts of my home congressional district.

Only we in Congress, working in conjunction with State and local government, can solve this problem. I am hopeful that as our attention turns to infrastructure we will not forget about the need for water infrastructure in our country, and particularly in parts of the West that are so severely affected by this drought.

We need more money for water storage projects, but we also need money for water treatment. I urge this body to act on this very important issue.

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