Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Floor Speech
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (House of Representatives - June 17, 2009)
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Mr. COSTA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I rise to speak in favor of Congressman Nunes' amendment. My district is ground zero, where the drought is having its most severe effect in California. The biological opinion in question asked for modifications to the Central Valley and State water projects that would divert even more water from agricultural communities in the San Joaquin Valley. We believe, with the modeling, that this adds another 330,000 acre-feet to more than 3 million acre-feet of water that has already been reallocated over the last 20 years.
There are substantial biological assessments that have been performed on the delta. These opinions have been cited, the assessments have been made, but they were not taken into account in this biological opinion. Therefore, we believe it's flawed.
There are other factors that contribute to the decline of the fisheries in the delta which we must change, which we must correct--treatment from sewage facilities; unscreened private pump diversions that take up as much water in the delta as we export south; nonpoint source pollution that has quadrupled as a result of urban areas in the area; and invasive species.
Bottom line, this biological opinion is flawed, and we ask that we finally stop this nonsense and come together. When will this stop? When our valley has no more water left for its farmers and its farm workers? I strongly support Congressman Nunes' amendment. I ask that we come together in a bipartisan sense. This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. It's an issue that we must solve, and we must do it now.
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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chairman, I just think that it's time for common sense to prevail. I've lost 30,000 jobs in my district as a result of this drought. We may lose generations of farmers. We need to come together with a California solution that is aside from the partisan differences and bring back water for all regions of California.
We're fighting for farmers and farm workers. I would ask common sense to prevail.
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