[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H310-H311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FLOODING AND WATER STORAGE

  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 about the water 
conditions facing California as I have for many times over the last 6 
years.
  Today, obviously, we have recent storms that we welcome in 
California. Over the past several days, my district has received above-
average rainfall and snow in the mountains; and we welcome that. But 
also that presents flood conditions.
  After over 5 years of record-breaking drought conditions, of course, 
we welcome the rain and snow; but there is

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also destructive flooding that is occurring as a result of that.
  Regrettably, to reduce this potential flooding, we are having to let 
this water go out to the ocean. This precious water could be extremely 
beneficial to farmers, farmworkers, and farm communities in the dry 
years. But, of course, we can't store it because the storage is not 
there.
  This water could be used to replenish groundwater aquifers that were 
depleted during these drought conditions and could be carried over for 
ground storage for use in dry years. This water could help ensure that 
farming communities would not continue to deal with double-digit 
unemployment levels that we have had to face over the last 6 years.
  It is why we need to invest more in the water storage projects in 
California, both surface storage and groundwater recharge, like raising 
the gates at Exchequer Dam, building Sites Reservoir and Temperance 
Flat Dam.
  The WIIN Act that we passed last month was enacted in December, and 
it provides funding for water storage authorization and for groundwater 
banking projects. And just in the last several weeks, we have 
determined that over 130,000 acre-feet of water is available today for 
use in our farm communities that otherwise would not be available.
  It is my sincere hope that those projects and others like this, like 
the Los Banos Creek Reservoir and raising San Luis Reservoir, are 
advanced as rapidly as possible in the next administration so that we 
can begin to capture the much-needed water that comes from these storms 
as we have had in the last 10 days.
  Fixing California's broken water system requires a multiprong 
approach, as I have said many times on this floor, and focusing on how 
we improve the water infrastructure and storage capacity will be 
imperative as we work together to update California's water system, 
both here in Congress with the new administration and with the 
administration in Sacramento that is also trying to create a water 
system that serves California's needs in the 21st century.
  After 5 years of devastating drought conditions, we are now 
witnessing these large storm events which have created floods in 
certain regions of California. It is either feast or famine in 
California; and with the climate change impacts, we know that will only 
continue in the future.
  So as we reflect on the last 5 years and we look at the progress we 
made last month with the WIIN Act that was part of WRDA legislation, as 
time goes on, it is important that in the future, during the dry years 
that we will face more intensive drought conditions, that we plan and 
provide for those drought conditions by creating the necessary surface 
storage and groundwater storage projects so that when we have wet 
years--we have wet times, as we witnessed in the last 10 days, when we 
see greater rainfall amounts, increased flooding, and snow pack--that 
we have the water storage capabilities to meet the captured water 
during the wet years so we can use it during the dry ones. Common sense 
tells us that.

                              {time}  1115

  I urge my colleagues in Congress and the people of California to 
continue to work together on a bipartisan basis because it is the only 
way we ever get anything done. So for the new administration, for my 
colleagues in the new Congress, and for my friends back in California, 
we must work together. If California, one of the most prosperous States 
in the Nation, the seventh or eighth largest economic power in the 
world, cannot fix the water challenges that we face in the 21st 
century, God help the rest of the world.
  This is all about sustainability--sustainability of our food supply, 
sustainability of our Nation. Food is a national security item. We 
don't look at it that way, but it truly is.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the new Congress and the new 
administration to build on the progress we made last month so that we 
can fix California's broken water system by using all of the water 
tools in our water toolbox, and we can only do that on a bipartisan 
basis.

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