The Drought Crisis in San Joaquin Valley

Floor Speech

THE DROUGHT CRISIS IN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY -- (House of Representatives - May 19, 2009)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.

Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to a drought crisis that is affecting California's San Joaquin Valley. Three years of below-average rainfall have created tremendous hardships in valley communities that are the backbone of California's agriculture economy. We have heard time and time again about the deep, deep financial impacts affecting all regions of our country. But in places like Detroit and in places like the San Joaquin Valley, where you have 30 and 40 percent unemployment, it is no longer a deep recession, but it is a depression.

Farmers and farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley grow over 350 different crops, employing tens of thousands of people and providing half the Nation's fruits and vegetables. It is number one in the dairy industry and a host of other important agricultural commodities that are not subsidized, that don't use subsidized water, that, in fact, are critical to healthy diets for Americans and provide a tremendous balance of payments on our trade efforts abroad.

Sadly, though, three critical years of drought shortage have had a devastating effect on communities in the San Joaquin Valley and in my district. My district and Congressman Cardoza's district are at ground zero where we have communities that have 30 and 40 percent unemployment, communities that have 10 and 12,000 people, 30,000 people, 50,000 people. When one-third of the people in your community don't have jobs, it is a depression.

Today, clearly, our environmental regulations are not working. We have an inability to move water around California.

We know that, if this drought lasts a fourth and fifth year, Katy, bar the door.

These are food lines in communities in my district. The irony is that these are some of the hardest working people you will ever meet. Normally, they would be working in fields, working in processing facilities, putting food on America's dinner plates. Sadly, they're in food lines. How horrific in America. Many of my colleagues for the last 4 months, 5 months have been working to try to bring attention to our State representatives, to our Governor and, here, to our President and to the new administration in town because we know, in California, like other parts of the country, droughts and floods are cyclical.

This photograph is an almond orchard that has been pulled out because of a lack of water. So, to that degree, Congressman Cardoza and I, in January, began meeting with the new administration, laying out a host of administrative efforts that we thought, with flexibility, could allow us to move water around from parts of the State that have water. We have met with Secretary Salazar and his staff, with the Mid-Pacific Region and their staff time and time again and with the Governor and his director of water resources, and we have brought to the attention of the President and of his White House staff the fact that they should come to the valley and see firsthand the devastating impacts.

We need to have flexibility during times of drought. Clearly, people are as important as the other environmental balances and trade-offs that are there. If the Environmental Species Act were working, we would not have a decline in the fisheries that have taken place over the last two decades. So we are working on short-term efforts to try to deal with the current situation in the event that this drought lasts a fourth or a fifth or a sixth year.

The last drought we had in California lasted 6 years, from 1988 to 1993. I predict to my colleagues that if, in fact, this drought lasts a fourth or a fifth year, California will be rationing water in southern California and in the Bay Area, and we will see a horrific set of circumstances affecting our State.

So it is time to act now, both with the short-term remedies as well as with the long-term remedies. We need to try to do everything we can to plan for the next year in the event that this drought continues. We need to provide flexibility at the Federal and State pumps to move water around, to make water banks work, and yes, in the long term, we need to fix the plumbing system in the delta.

California has 38 million people. By the year 2030, it is estimated we will have 50 million people. We have a water system designed for 20 million people. It cannot work. So, with a larger coalition of the Latino Water Caucus, we marched on water in April. We are going to continue to march. We are going to continue to try to seek out our colleagues who want to constructively help us with the administration to understand that both short-term and long-term investments in California infrastructure are critical if we are going to solve this problem.

This is a forerunner of what's occurring, not just here in California but around the world. Water is the lifeblood of man's ability to produce food and fiber. The problems we are having in California today are happening around the world. We need to act today.

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