Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009
Floor Speech
OMNIBUS PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - March 11, 2009)
Mr. COSTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of two important pieces of legislation that I have sponsored and that are now included in the natural resources bill that we have received from the Senate, S. 22.
SAN JOAQUIN RIVER RESTORATION SETTLEMENT ACT
The first, the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, will bring to a close 18 years of litigation between the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Friant Water Users Authority, the U.S. Department of the Interior and others. Representatives CARDOZA, MCNERNEY and RADANOVICH joined me as co-sponsors of this legislation. This bill is similiar to the one that we introduced in the waning days of the 109th Congress, and reintroduced at the beginning of the 110th Congress as H.R. 24. The bill approves, authorizes and helps fund an historic Settlement on the San Joaquin River in California.
However, the bill we are introducing today does reflect a few significant changes resulting from discussions among the numerous Settling Parties and various ``Third Parties'' in the San Joaquin Valley of California. During the past year the parties to the settlement and these affected third parties, such as the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors, have agreed to certain changes to the legislation to make the measure PAYGO neutral and to enhance implementation of the settlement's ``Water Management Goal'' to reduce or avoid adverse water supply impacts to Friant Division long-term water contractors. The legislation that we are voting on today incorporates these changes, which are supported by the State of California and major water agencies on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. The Bush Administration also supported this legislation.
This bill will approve a settlement that seeks to restore California's second longest river, the San Joaquin, while maintaining a stable water supply for the farmers who have made the San Joaquin Valley the richest agricultural area in the world.
The Settlement has two co-equal goals: to restore and maintain fish populations in the San Joaquin River, including a self-sustaining salmon fishery, and to avoid or reduce adverse water supply impacts to long-term Friant water contractors. Consistent with the terms of the Settlement, we expect that both of these goals will be pursued with equal diligence by the federal agencies.
The bill also authorizes $1 million for the California Water Institute at California State University, Fresno, for the creation of an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan for the Central Valley. The plan will serve as a guide for those in the study area to use to address and solve long-term water needs in a sustainable and equitable manner.
This legislation is crucial. Without this consensus resolution, the parties will continue the fight, resulting in a court-imposed judgment. It is widely recognized that an outcome imposed by a court is likely to be worse for everyone on all counts: more costly, riskier for the farmers, and less beneficial for the environment.
The Settlement provides a framework that the affected interests can accept. As a result, this legislation has enjoyed the strong support of the Bush Administration, California Governor Schwarzenegger's Administration, the environmental and fishing communities and numerous California farmers and water districts, including the Friant Water Users Authority and its member districts that have been part of the litigation.
When the Federal Court approved the Settlement in late October, 2006, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne praised the Settlement for launching ``one of the largest environmental restoration projects in California's history.'' The Secretary further observed that ``This Settlement closes a long chapter of conflict and uncertainty in California's San Joaquin Valley ..... and open[s] a new chapter of environmental restoration and water supply certainty for the farmers and their communities.''
I share the former Secretary's support for this agreement, and it is my honor to join with Representatives CARDOZA, MCNERNEY and RADANOVICH, as well as Senators FEINSTEIN and BOXER who have previously introduced and supported this legislation to authorize and help fund the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement.
For almost two years we have worked with the parties to the settlement, affected third party agencies and the State of California to ensure that the legislation complies with congressional PAYGO rules.
In November of 2007, the House Natural Resources Committee favorably reported a revised version of the bill (H.R. 4074) that included amendments conditionally agreed to by the parties that allow most Friant Division contractors to accelerate repayment of their construction cost obligation to the Treasury. In May of 2008, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably reported the Senate companion measure (S. 27) with provisions that further refined the accelerated repayment concept and addressed third party concerns about its implementation. These changes, included in the bill we introduce today, both increase the amount of up-front funding available for the settlement and decrease the bill's PAYGO ``score'' by $88 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In exchange for agreeing to early re-payment of their construction obligation, Friant water agencies will be able to convert their 25-year water service contracts to permanent repayment contracts, so-called ``9D contracts'' under federal Reclamation Law.
I note that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Users Authority on behalf of its members have had very specific discussions on how the repayment amounts will be calculated in accordance with this legislation, memorialized in a letter dated February 20, 2009, from Mr. Donald Glaser, Regional Director of the Bureau of Reclamation for the Mid-Pacific Region. I request that Mr. Glaser's letter be inserted in the RECORD.
These new contracts will be administered as repayment contracts consistent with federal Reclamation Law, including the Acts of August 4, 1939 (ch. 418, 53 Stat. 1187) and July 2, 1956 (ch. 492, 70 Stat. 483). The later Act, among other things, provides in part that the contractors shall have a first right ``..... to a stated share or quantity of the project's available water supply ..... and a permanent right to such share or quantity upon completion of payment. .....'' It is my understanding that, except as specifically provided in this legislation, the operative provisions of such repayment contracts will be substantially similar to the existing water service contracts.
The bill also provides in Section 10010(c)(1) that, consistent with Section 213(a) of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982, the ownership and full-cost pricing provisions of federal Reclamation Law no longer will apply to the individual Friant Contractors upon repayment of their capital obligations. A question has arisen as to whether these Reclamation Law limitations would apply to water delivered under such a repayment contract after full repayment of capital, where a Friant contractor also had a contract for another supply under a water service contract, such as the Cross Valley Canal contract. It is my understanding that the Department of the Interior and Friant contractors concur that in such a situation, the acre-limitation and full-cost pricing provisions would not apply to water delivered from Central Valley Project facilities for which the capital costs had been fully paid, but would apply to water delivered from Project facilities for which the capital costs had not been repaid, such as water from the Cross Valley Canal contracts.
The Senate Committee amendments also included new provisions to enhance the water management efforts of affected Friant water districts. These provisions are contained in Part III of Title X, Subpart A, of the legislation before the House today. These changes were developed by the parties to the settlement at my request and the request of Mr. Cardoza and Mr. Radanovich to ensure that the Friant districts have the best opportunity to mitigate water supply impacts resulting from the Settlement.
Specifically, the legislation now includes new authority to provide improvements to Friant Division facilities, including restoring capacity in canals, reverse flow pump-back facilities, and financial assistance for local water banking and groundwater recharge projects, all for the purpose of reducing or avoiding impacts on Friant Division contractors resulting from additional River flows called for by the Settlement and this Legislation.
In addition, with respect to Part III authorizing financial assistance for local projects for water banking and groundwater storage, recovery and conveyance, the bill authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to share up to 50 percent of the cost of such projects. It is my understanding that in administering other cost-sharing programs, the Bureau typically provides the maximum cost sharing authorized unless the applicant requests less.
Near the end of the 110th Congress, parties to the Settlement and affected third parties came to agreement on additional provisions that would greatly facilitate passage of the bill by making it fully PAYGO-neutral.
The legislation we are introducing today includes substantial funding, including direct spending on settlement implementation during the first ten year period of $88 million gained by early repayment of Friant's construction obligation, and substantial additional funding authorized for annual appropriation until 2019, after which it then becomes available for direct spending again. This additional funding is generated by continuing payments from Friant water users and will become directly available to continue implementing the settlement by 2019 if it has not already been appropriated for that purpose before then.
In 2006, California voters showed their support for the settlement by approving Propositions 84 and 1E, which will help pay for the Settlement, with the State of California now committing at least $200 million toward the Settlement costs during the next 10 years. When State-committed funding, direct spending authorized by the bill, and highly reliable funding from water users are added together, there is at least $380-390 million available for implementing the Settlement over the next 10 years, with additional dollars possible from additional federal appropriations.
It is my understanding that Senator Feinstein intends to work during the 111th Congress to find a suitable offset that will allow restoration of all of the direct spending envisioned by the settlement without waiting until 2019, and I will do whatever I can to aid in those efforts.
Today's legislation continues to include substantial protections for other water districts in California who were not party to the original settlement negotiations. These other water contractors will be able to avoid all but the smallest water impacts as a result of the settlement, except on a voluntary basis.
The bill we are introducing today contains several new provisions to strengthen these third-party protections in light of the changes made to address PAYGO. These include safeguards to ensure that the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors and other third parties will not face increased costs or regulatory burdens as a result of the PAYGO changes.
This agreement would not have been possible without the participation of a remarkably broad group of agencies, stakeholders and legislators, reaching far beyond the settling parties. The Department of the Interior, the State of California, the Friant Water Users Authority, the Natural Resources Defense Council on behalf of 13 other environmental organizations and countless other stakeholders came together and spent countless hours with legislators in Washington to ensure that we found a solution that the large majority of those affected could support.
I urge my colleagues in the House to approve this legislation and provide the Administration the authorization it needs to fully carry out the restoration, water management and other actions called for under the settlement.
SEQUOIA AND KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS WILDERNESS
I also rise today in support of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wilderness designation.
This provision adds about 85,000 acres of wilderness in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California. About 45,000 acres of the wilderness created by this bill will be incorporated into the currently existing Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness area. The other 40,000 acres will comprise a new wilderness area, which will be named after former Congressman John Krebs.
John Krebs served two-terms in Congress, from 1975 to 1979, representing California's San Joaquin Valley and the central Sierra Nevada mountains that include Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. He was born in Berlin in 1926 and immigrated to the United States in 1946. He graduated from the University of California and later US's Hasting College of Law. He had lived in Fresno, California since 1958 and prior to being elected to Congress was active in local government, including serving a term on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
I had the great privilege of working in John Krebs first congressional campaign and joining him during his first term in Washington. It was through his efforts that Congress first provided federal wilderness designation for the Mineral King area.
The wilderness areas designated by this Act include some spectacular areas within the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The Redwood Canyon area contains Redwood Mountain Grove, the largest stand of Giant Sequoia within the parks. The Redwood Canyon area also includes over 75 known caves, including the longest cave in California with over 21 miles of surveyed passage.
This bill is obviously very important to me--both for preserving these natural areas for future generations, as well as for honoring my former boss--and I urge my House colleagues to approve S. 22 so this measure can become law.
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