[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      BAY DELTA CONSERVATION PLAN

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, in our San Joaquin Valley in California, 
unfortunately we are facing yet another fight for every drop of water 
that's critical to our economic recovery. For over the last 2 months, 
we have lost over 700,000 acre-feet of water that represents $2.2 
billion in economic activity because of an unlawful biological opinion 
that puts a 2-inch fish before 25 million Californians.
  Had the Bay Delta Conservation Plan been implemented, none of this 
valuable water would have been lost today. To add insult to injury, our 
valley was dealt yet another blow when the Bureau of Reclamation 
announced this week a 25 percent water allocation. This is simply 
unacceptable.
  It remains to be seen if the Obama administration and their nominee 
to replace Secretary Salazar has forgotten or ignored the tough lessons 
from the failures of 2009 and 2010. Immediate action is necessary to 
keep a bad situation from becoming devastating to our valley this year 
and throughout the State.
  The Bay Delta Conservation Plan must move forward to resolve this 
situation in the future. Every day wasted is valuable time and water 
lost.

                          ____________________