[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 96 (Thursday, May 21, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2588-S2589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 3811. A bill to provide financial assistance for projects to 
address certain subsidence impacts in the State of California, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the 
Restoration of Essential Conveyance Act, which I introduced today. 
Representatives TJ Cox and Jim Costa, both Democrats of California, 
have introduced companion legislation in the House.
  This legislation would help California water users and California's 
nation-leading agricultural industry comply with a recent State 
requirement to end the overpumping of groundwater. The stakes are huge: 
Bringing groundwater into balance will reduce the water supply of the 
San Joaquin Valley by about 2 million acre-feet per year.
  Unless local water agencies and the State and Federal governments 
take action, a recent U.C. Berkeley study has projected severe impacts 
from these water supply losses: 798,000 acres of land would have to be 
retired from agricultural production, nearly one-sixth of the working 
farmland in an area that produces half the fruit and vegetables grown 
in the Nation; and $5.9 billion would be lost in annual farm income.
  How the bill would help: One of the most cost-effective and efficient 
ways to restore groundwater balance is to convey floodwaters to 
farmlands where they can recharge the aquifer. California has the most 
variable precipitation of any State. When we get massive storms from 
atmospheric rivers, there is plenty of runoff to recharge aquifers--but 
only if we can effectively convey the floodwaters throughout the San 
Joaquin Valley to recharge areas.
  Here is where the challenge arises. For a variety of reasons, the 
ground beneath the major canals has dropped by as much as 10 to 20 feet 
which has caused canals designed to convey floodwaters to buckle and 
drop in many places. Other parts of the canals have not subsided, so 
the water gets stuck in the low points.
  As a result, these essential canals for conveying floodwaters have 
lost as much as 60 percent of their conveyance capacity. The bill I am 
introducing today would provide Federal assistance to help fix these 
Federal canals.
  Specifically, the bill would authorize $600 million in Federal 
funding-cost share for three major projects to repair Federal canals 
damaged by subsidence to achieve their lost capacity: $200 million for 
the Friant-Kern Canal, which would move an additional 100,000 acre-feet 
per year on average; $200 million for the Delta Mendota Canal, which 
would move an additional 62,000 acre-feet per year on average; and $200 
million for California Aqueduct repairs, which would move an additional 
205,000 acre-feet per year on average. While parts of the California 
Aqueduct are State-owned, the majority of the repairs are on its 
federally owned portion.
  The bill would also authorize $200 million in additional funding for 
the Environmental Restoration Goal of the San Joaquin River settlement. 
This provision will ensure that the bill helps to restore not only the 
San Joaquin Valley's water supply, but also its native salmon runs. I 
think it is appropriate that we consider legislation that would benefit 
both our water supply and the environment.
  Benefits of the bill: If the Federal Government covers a portion of 
the cost of restoring these three essential Federal canals for 
conveying floodwaters, it will give local farmers a fighting chance to 
bring their groundwater basins into balance without being forced to 
retire massive amounts of land.
  Critically, the ability to deliver floodwaters through restored 
Federal canals will allow the water districts to invest in their own 
turnouts, pumps, detention basins and other groundwater recharge 
projects. The South Valley Water Association, which covers just a small 
part of the Valley, provided my office with a list of 36 such projects 
for its area alone.
  The Public Policy Institute of California, or PPIC, has determined 
that groundwater recharge projects are the best option to help the San 
Joaquin Valley comply with the new state groundwater pumping law. PPIC 
projects that the Valley can make up 300,000 to 500,000 acre feet of 
its groundwater deficit through recharge projects.
  Job Losses if We Take No Action: A forthcoming study commissioned by 
the coalition group called the ``Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin 
Valley'' estimates that required reductions in groundwater could cause 
a loss of up to 42,000 farm and agricultural jobs in the San Joaquin 
Valley. Another 40,000 jobs or more could be lost statewide each year 
due to reductions in valley agricultural production, putting the total 
at approximately 85,000 jobs statewide. Most of these impacts will fall 
disproportionately on economically disadvantaged communities. These 
impacts will be significant unless we address them through 
collaborative planning, policies, infrastructure, recharge, and 
necessary financial support.
  Friant-Kern Canal: Let me now turn to the three critical canals that 
the bill would authorize assistance to restore. The Friant-Kern Canal 
is a key feature of the Friant Division of the Federal Central Valley 
Project on the Eastside of the San Joaquin Valley. For nearly 70 years, 
the Friant Division successfully kept groundwater tables stable on the 
Eastside. This provided a sustainable source of water for farms and for 
thousands of Californians

[[Page S2589]]

and more than 50 small, rural, or disadvantaged communities who rely 
entirely on groundwater for their household water supplies.
  But unsustainable groundwater pumping in the valley has reduced the 
Friant-Kern Canal's ability to deliver water to all who need it. Land 
elevation subsidence caused by over-pumping means that not all of the 
supplies stored at Friant Dam can be conveyed through the canal. In 
some areas, the canal can carry only 40 percent of what it is designed 
to deliver.
  In 2017, a very wet year in which we should have been banking as much 
flood water as possible, the Friant-Kern Canal couldn't deliver an 
additional 300,000 acre-feet of water that it would have been able to 
convey had its capacity not been limited by subsidence. This 
significant amount of water would have been destined for groundwater 
recharge efforts in the south San Joaquin Valley, where the impacts of 
reduced water deliveries, water quality issues and groundwater 
regulation are expected to be most severe.
  California Aqueduct and Delta Mendota Canal: The California Aqueduct 
serves more than 27 million people in Southern California and the 
Silicon Valley and more than 750,000 acres of the Nation's most 
productive farmland. But despite its name, much of the California 
Aqueduct is owned by the Federal Government and serves portions of 
Silicon Valley, small towns and communities in the northern San Joaquin 
Valley, and farms from Firebaugh to Kettleman City. The aqueduct 
represents a successful 70-year partnership between the Federal 
Government and the State of California.
  In recent years, particularly recent drought years, the California 
Aqueduct has subsided. It has lost as much as 20 percent of its 
capacity to move water to California's families, farms, and businesses. 
California is leading efforts to repair the aqueduct and is working to 
provide its share of funding, but the Federal Government will also need 
to pay its fair share. The bill I am introducing today would authorize 
$200 million toward restoring the California Aqueduct.
  The Delta-Mendota Canal stretches southward 117 miles from the C.W. 
Bill Jones Pumping Plant along the western edge of the San Joaquin 
Valley, parallel to the California Aqueduct. The Delta-Mendota Canal 
has lost 15 percent of its conveyance capacity due to subsidence. The 
bill I am introducing today would authorize $200 million toward 
restoring its full ability to convey floodwaters to farms needing to 
recharge their groundwater, and to wildlife refuges for migratory 
waterfowl.
  In conclusion, this bill responds to a potential crisis that very 
possibly could cause the forced retirement of nearly one-sixth of the 
working farmland in an area that produces half of America's fruits and 
vegetables.
  These are Federal canals, and the Federal Government must help give 
these farmers and communities reliant of the agricultural economy a 
fighting chance to keep their lands in production.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in support of this bill. I yield 
the floor.
                                 ______