[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1117-H1118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CALIFORNIA'S WATER FLUCTUATIONS

  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 the 
extreme winter storms that continue to batter California and the West 
Coast, leaving some Californians stranded in their homes and 
communities across the State with damaged infrastructure. Approximately 
16 million people have been impacted in recent weeks.
  Last week, Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency for 13 
counties, including Tulare County, which I represent, and other 
important areas. State officials estimate damage costs could surpass $1 
billion.
  California's snowpack is approaching record levels in California's 
Sierra Nevada. In most cases, that would be good news. Officials 
believe this may rival the 1982-1983 snow year.
  However, this is good news for a State that has suffered long-term 
drought that forced residents to cut usage and ration water, farmers to 
fallow hundreds of thousands of acres of productive land, and left 
landowners with a record number of dry wells in the Central Valley. 
That was just a few months ago.
  However, now the situation has changed. We now have to do a better 
job of managing in real time long-term water regulations that aren't 
working. We need to be better prepared to avoid what happened in 
communities like Planada and others where flooding damaged farms and 
displaced farmworkers.
  That is why we need to fast-track improvements to our water 
infrastructure, using every tool in our water toolbox to divert water 
to recharge overdrafted aquifers. You can see from the snowpack here 
and from the flooding there, this is what has been occurring since the 
beginning of the first of the year. Therefore, we must increase water 
storage in all ways in wet years, like this one, to ensure that we can 
withstand the dry spells.
  If we would have completed projects like the Sites Reservoir, which 
has been talked about for years, we would have been able to store 1.5 
million additional acre-feet of water.
  Thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, we do have Federal 
dollars available to expand projects that are currently in progress: 
Los Vaqueros and Del Puerto Reservoirs and raising the dam at the San 
Luis Reservoir, which is expected to be filled in the next 45 days.
  Mr. Speaker, in addition, this weekend, we are going to have a major 
test in California because forecasters are predicting another 
atmospheric river that will provide warm storms, which could melt 
recent snow up in the mountains. When warm water hits that snow, it 
melts. If that happens, our rivers will carry a deluge of water toward 
vulnerable communities that we may not be able to protect.
  These massive fluctuations, from extreme wet years to extreme dry 
periods, are a result of climate change, and we need to make smart 
investments to do a better job to prepare for the new reality. Knowing 
this, we need to make real changes in how we allow water managers to 
adjust and focus on real-time operations, not some predetermined date 
rooted in decades-old data.
  I commend Governor Newsom for issuing an executive order to expand 
California's capacity to capture storm runoff during these wet times by 
accelerating groundwater recharge projects, which is absolutely 
necessary.
  Last week, the Bureau of Reclamation announced an initial allocation 
of 35 percent for south-of-the-delta agriculture and water service 
contractors. We can and should do better. It is understandably a 
conservative initial allocation, but now we have more heavy rains 
coming. It is time to raise those allocations to the highest feasible 
levels. We must divert water to our communities and farmers who are 
ready and willing to take water to recharge groundwater.
  Toward the future, I am working to rewrite the farm bill this year to 
improve water conservation, enhance opportunities for groundwater 
recharge so that our overdraft aquifers reach sustainability. The 
people of the San Joaquin Valley deserve no less.
  California, with a new water blueprint needs to invest, invest the 
$1.2 trillion in the bipartisan infrastructure law, $4.5 billion for 
drought relief. Taking action and mastering real-time

[[Page H1118]]

management will mean that no one goes without having access to clean 
drinking water; our farmers can grow food--where water flows, we say 
food grows--for our country and for other parts of the world that need 
that food; and our environment can thrive. That is what we must do.
  We have a current crisis. We must act now to address that crisis, and 
that is a challenge we face.

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