[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 17 (Thursday, January 26, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CALIFORNIA STORMS AND CENTRAL VALLEY FARMERS

  (Mr. VALADAO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, over the last few weeks, California has 
experienced severe storms that brought much-needed water to our State. 
If you thought that meant water shortages in California were over, you 
would be wrong.
  Since October of last year, California has flushed over 6.4 million 
acre-feet of water out to the ocean. That is 2 trillion gallons. This 
is extremely frustrating for the Central Valley farmers who are 
fallowing their fields and the communities that are running out of 
water for daily use in their homes and businesses.
  The pumps that are in place to deliver water to farms, homes, and 
businesses aren't allowed to run at their full capacity due to 
environmental regulations. If we had increased flexibility on these 
pumping regulations to account for real-time conditions, we could have 
captured 84,000 more acre-feet of water during the 2 weeks of storms.
  Increasing flexibility in how we operate these pumps, as well as 
investing in critical water storage infrastructure and conveyance 
projects, will allow us to maximize what can be stored for these flow 
events and make us more resilient for drought.
  Every drop of water is critical to my constituents in Central Valley.

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