Authorizing Participation in Los Angeles County Water Supply Augmentation Demonstration Project

Floor Speech

AUTHORIZING PARTICIPATION IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY WATER SUPPLY AUGMENTATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

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Ms. LINDA T. SÁNCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking Mr. Grijalva for being so generous with time. And I would also like to thank Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall and Ranking Member Don Young, as well as Water and Power Subcommittee Chairwoman Grace Napolitano, for recognizing the importance of this bill, H.R. 786, the ``Southern California Water Augmentation Study.''

I would like to especially thank Chairwoman Grace Napolitano for her support on this bill and her leadership in moving it through the Natural Resources Committee.

I became interested in this effort because California and other parts of the country need to move forward on two very important issues. First, we must increase our groundwater drinking supplies. We can do this by improving the safe infiltration of surface water which seeps into the ground. Second, we must reduce urban storm-water runoff that can carry trash and contamination to our beaches and oceans. This water augmentation study addresses both of those issues.

Storm-water currently becomes contaminated by running off rooftops and roads and carrying that pollution into our oceans. Our study is assessing ways to safely absorb that water into the ground where natural purifying processes can take place. This will stem the flow of polluted water into the ocean and safely recharge our groundwater supplies. Simply put, this project is about taking the water that we lose and turning it into water we use.

This study will assess the potential of urban storm-water infiltration to augment our water supplies. It will determine the benefits, costs, and risks of infiltration. It will help us understand what conditions we need to make infiltration work and assess its potential for increasing our drinking water supply. At the same time, it will show us how to reduce water pollution, creating additional environmental and social benefits.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is designed to make southern California more water-self-sufficient and less reliant on imported water from our neighbors in the central and northern parts of our State.

This is a bipartisan effort in which there is agreement on the merits of the project throughout our government. I am very pleased that President Bush has included funding for the water augmentation study in his last four budgets, including this year.

Also, the Bureau of Reclamation has been extremely supportive of this project. In fact, they helped create it in the year 2000 because they see it as helping to solve the real problem we face in California and other, shall I say, ``water-challenged'' areas of the country.

Again, I would like to thank Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Young, as well as the great staff on the House Resources Committee; and to thank Representative Napolitano for her unyielding support of this bill.

In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt said, ``The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve all others.'' With your help, Southern California can make significant progress toward improving its water resources management.

I urge approval of this legislation.

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