[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2554-2555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                  SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY'S ACCESS TO WATER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about one of the most 
important issues facing the San Joaquin Valley, and that is the access 
to water.
  California has received well-above-average rainfall during the months 
of December and January. But for the past several weeks, we have seen 
dry conditions, once again, come back.
  For the last several weeks I have tried to speak on behalf of the 
need to make changes so that we can urge the Federal agencies to pump 
water at maximum levels that are allowed under the biological opinions, 
so that we could bring more water to the San Joaquin Valley and the 
farms located south of the delta.
  It is welcome news that they are pumping at more robust levels, and 
it is my hope that we will continue to pump at maximum levels when 
allowable, especially because these El Nino conditions that we have had 
in December and January are now fading, sadly.
  With the possibility of California's rainy and snow seasons coming to 
an end, and with much less precipitation than we had hoped for, we must 
take advantage of every drop of precious water that is in the system.
  We need a comprehensive plan to fix California's broken water system 
that provides short-term operational flexibility and, at the same time, 
increases the State's long-term drought resiliency that will provide 
real water reliability and actually recovers species that have been 
listed in the Sacramento, San Joaquin Delta.
  It is time to address these issues that are impacting these species 
in the delta and implement a plan to recover them so that we can stop 
operating the water system primarily with the blunt tools of the 
Endangered Species Act that clearly aren't working. They are not 
working because the species are not recovering.

[[Page 2555]]

  Studies have indicated that on some rivers feeding into the delta, 
over 98 percent of the juvenile salmon are eaten by invasive species 
like the striped bass that aren't even native to California.
  Despite this knowledge and the clear protections provided listed 
species by the Endangered Species Act, the administration has 
established a goal to double the amount of striped bass in California.
  It should not be the policy of the United States to increase the 
populations of invasive species that prey on native salmon in 
California. I don't get it. This makes absolutely no sense and needs to 
be corrected.
  We should be implementing a predator control program which, I might 
add, is supported by the Salmon Fisheries Institute. As a matter of 
fact, they have got over 31 programs on predator control that they 
would like to implement. They can't implement one of them.
  We should be focusing on trying to make a difference, and that is why 
I am proud to be a cosponsor of Representative Jeff Denham's 
legislation, the Save Our Salmon Act.
  The Save Our Salmon Act, by Congressman Denham, would eliminate the 
policy of doubling striped bass populations in the delta, a policy 
which has very serious negative impacts to our native salmon species 
and causes tremendous harm to the farm communities in the San Joaquin 
Valley.
  We have to determine if California is going to operate with a broken 
system or if Congress, the administration, and the State can come 
together with Federal and State legislation to provide meaningful 
solutions to fix our broken water system for the future, for the 21st 
century.
  Will we allow communities to dry up and blow away, as some of my 
colleagues, I believe, sometimes infer?
  Or will we come together and craft a solution that can improve 
conditions for everyone across the State, while focusing on drought 
recovery for those who have been most affected in areas that I 
represent?
  I am talking about farm workers. I am talking about farmers. I am 
talking about farm communities that put food every night on America's 
dinner table. I will continue to believe that we still can come 
together if we focus on achievable solutions.
  After years of moving more and more water through the delta in an 
attempt to halt species decline, we haven't actually recovered any of 
these species. It is high time, I believe, to try something new.
  I remain committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to craft solutions that increase California's drought resiliency 
and provide water to the communities who have been most impacted by the 
recent drought because, after all, this is about security. It is about 
job security, it is about economic security, it is about the future 
security of our valley and the State of California.
  We must fix California's broken water system for the short term and 
the long term. Time is of the essence, and every day of delay only 
results in losses of these vital water supplies.

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