[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5716-H5717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE DROUGHT CRISIS IN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

  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.

                              {time}  1045

  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,

[[Page H5717]]

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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