[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 20, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H1860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                             WATER AND ESA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the need to fix 
California's broken water system, a broken water system that no longer 
can provide for the needs of the State of California, designed years 
ago for a population of 20 million and the agriculture that we had in 
the sixties. Today we have 41 million people. By the year 2030, it is 
estimated California will have 50 million people.
  The water system we have today cannot sustain a growing State. As 
solutions are offered, I believe amending the Endangered Species Act to 
more effectively protect species while minimizing the harm to 
California communities should be a part of this conversation.
  The ESA has an important role in ensuring species protection, but it 
is clear that there are major challenges with its implementation. In 
California, one of those challenges is the Act's implementation limits 
on the ability to move water from north to south when we have an excess 
of water in the system, as we have had over the last 5 months.

                              {time}  1045

  Simply put, California faced 4 record dry years, which was noted 
throughout the country and throughout the world; and, this year, we had 
El Nino conditions that gave us average and above average rain and snow 
in northern California.
  Now, I don't believe anybody thought that 1 year of good rainfall 
would completely dig us out of the devastating circumstances that 
California farmers, farmworkers, and farm communities have faced; but, 
last December, I was hopeful because the rain and snow conditions that 
were occurring, coupled with the weather forecasting, indicated that 
there was a high likelihood that there would be enough water in the 
system to help recover--but not end--the devastating drought conditions 
that the San Joaquin Valley faced as well as other parts of California. 
However, as a result of what I believe are flawed biological opinions 
that govern the operations of the water projects that move water from 
north to south, we failed to pump over 244,000 acre-feet of water that 
would have been very helpful today in areas that were most impacted by 
the drought conditions and still are.
  Some farmers, this year, are receiving only 5 percent of their total 
allocation. It is made worse because, over the last 2 years, they 
received a zero water allocation because of these conditions that I am 
stating. To put it in perspective, this year, 7 million acre-feet of 
water flowed through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta system out to 
the ocean, and only 963,000 acre-feet were pumped for human and 
agricultural use. Seven million acre-feet went through the delta out to 
the ocean, and we pumped less than 1 million acre-feet for human and 
agricultural use.
  This is unconscionable in a State that has been ravaged by drought 
for the last 4 years. It also was avoidable. There is a host of 
technical reasons as to why this water flowed into the ocean, but the 
simple fact is that conservative decisionmaking, enabled by inflexible 
provisions in the biological opinions that were promulgated under the 
Endangered Species Act, led to this avoidable outcome.
  Therefore, it is time to reform the Endangered Species Act because it 
needs to be more flexible in order to provide adaptability to changing 
conditions. It is time to reform the Endangered Species Act because it 
must effectively recover species, which it doesn't do, and not simply 
maintain an unsustainable status quo like that in California, 
especially when you have a drought crisis. Finally, it is time to 
reform the Endangered Species Act because both people and our 
environment deserve better.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to update the Endangered 
Species Act for today's conditions and not for those of the past.

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