Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this bill, a bill that would destroy jobs, does nothing to address the real problem, the drought, and ignores more than 20 years of established science.

What does the bill do? Will this bill help alleviate the drought? No. Even if we pumped as much water as possible, Central Valley farmers still wouldn't have enough. There simply isn't enough water to go around.

We are in an extreme drought, the worst in the last century. You can look at these photographs and see the snow pack last year versus the snow pack this year. We are in bad straits, and it is a drought. It is not a manmade problem, it is a drought.

Will this bill kill jobs? Yes. The delta supports thousands of jobs in farming, fishing and tourism and has an economic output of more than $4 billion a year. This bill puts those jobs in jeopardy. Will this bill harm drinking water that millions of people rely on? Yes. When clean water is pumped south, the level of saltwater in the delta increases. People can't drink seawater.

The entire State of California is in a drought. You saw it in today's USA Today. There are towns without water. There are more towns in line to lose all the water they have, and it is not due to a lack of pumping because of a ``little fish.'' It is due to the lack of snow and the lack of rain.

Now, I know this is personal for many of my colleagues. It is personal for me, too. Many of the towns that I represent are running out of water. My home town is rationing water--65 gallons per person per day. It is a real, real serious problem.

I understand the concerns of the Central Valley farmers. Ag is big in my district, too, and this drought is hurting my constituents, as well. Because of these dry conditions, grapevines will experience an early bud this year, and without water to protect the early bud from the frost, we have no crops--out of business.

It is a drought that is causing the problem. Proponents of this bill say those who oppose it care more about fish than people. These comments cheapen the debate. They insult the intelligence of Californians and are not based on facts. As UC-Berkeley professor of agriculture and resource economics stated in the paper today, Michael Hanemann, he said that you can kill every fish in the delta and you still would have a real problem.

Simply put, this bill is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to use this drought as an excuse to pump water from other users and to do so with zero regard for the people who depend on that water for their livelihoods. It would be more productive for this body to join in a rain dance on the floor today than to pass this bill. Our people--our constituents--deserve better than this politically driven bill. They deserve solutions. I ask for a ``no'' vote on the bill.

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment.

California is facing a severe statewide drought. It is having devastating impacts on families all across our State. This bill will only make things worse for many. It will jeopardize the drinking water for millions of Californians.

In my district, families from Contra Costa and Solano Counties get their drinking water from the delta. This supply is already limited due to the extreme drought. This bill wants to pump that limited drinking water south. Doing this would flood the delta with seawater--and people can't drink seawater.

That is why this amendment is so important. It simply says that this bill shall not harm the delta's very limited drinking water supply.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on the amendment, and I thank the gentleman from Sacramento for bringing it to the floor.

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