McClintock pushes for hearing on valley water situation
‘Problem is regulatory drought,’ congressman said
U.S. Rep Tom McClintock is wading into the California water wars on the federal front. Using his position as ranking Republican member on the House Water and Power Subcommittee, the 4th District congressman has requested the panel hold a field hearing on what he is describing as a water crisis in the Central Valley. McClintock, R-Roseville, said the diversion of hundreds of billions of gallons of water for environmental purposes, including delta smelt protections proven not to work, is “utterly intolerable.” “The problem is a regulatory drought,” he said. “Environmental regulators are diverting 200 billion gallons of the water supply. And it’s not even helping the smelt while it’s devastating for the economy, creating higher taxes and grocery prices.” McClintock made the field hearing request in a letter to Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall and Water and Power Subcommittee Chairwoman Grace Napolitano. In the letter, McClintock expressed disappointment in the committee for not focusing on the plight of Central Valley families or “that 250,000 of the most fertile agricultural acres in the entire hemisphere have been fallowed.” McClintock said Friday that it’s inevitable the hearing will take place. Dave Breninger, general manager of the Placer County Water Agency, said McClintock will be able to help look at the impact of water restrictions on jobs and food. “He’s seeing the big picture, which is commendable,” Breninger said, adding that also includes water supply in area-of-origin counties like Placer. The water agency is currently grappling with attempts by state legislators to craft new water bills that could result in 20 percent reductions in supply for Placer while other areas face smaller cutbacks. Breninger said it’s good to have a strong voice on the federal front and McClintock will provide that. “He’s one who’s on point to talk about what some people don’t want to talk about publicly,” Breninger said. Jack Sanchez, Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead president, said the delta that supplies much of the Central Valley is imperiled by the lack of water – but not just fish stocks. The plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger involving construction of a peripheral canal to ship water to the western part of the San Joaquin Valley borders on lunacy, he said. “I believe that it’s very difficult to solve state water problems by trying to satisfy all parties with one vehicle – the peripheral canal,” Sanchez said. SARSAS has a plan that would allow groups and individuals to work on streams to help with the state water problems and increase salmon and other fish stocks, he said.
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Honestly what is more important fruit and vegetables or smelt and salmon ? The ground water levels are very low and that leads to all kinds of enviromental problems. We need to capture and control more water it is just common sense folks.
I'm in the unusual position of agreeing with McClintock on this one.
I hope this doesn't come down to everyone simply fighting the others for the sake of fighting.
I hope the water rights that are indigenous to Placer County are upheld.
I hope a reasonable agreement can be made that allows a balanced distribution of water resources, and not an imbalance to environmental concerns only.
If the construction, and agricultural industries in this state are to recover from this financial malaise, there needs to be water held and made available. No one should have to fight for that obvious conclusion, but here we are trying to illustrate what once was easily regarded as "common sense".
Industries like the movie business, semi-conductor development, medical technology, travel and entertainment, these businesses pull money into the state from outside. That's what we want and need to happen as much as possible. Construction and farming do that as well and they're both job providing industries that need to be protected and encouraged.
We need those dollars to come from outside our local state economy in order to recover from this economic blight. We have the potential to recover without federal help if we just put the proper emphasis on those industries that draw in non-local money.
Go to the other village and bring back their beads, for crying out loud!!
There also needs to be more drought tolerant crops grown, that use less water, but no one seems to address how more water can be saved by farmers and their farming methods, crops, etc...with rising ocean levels, the water issues will only get worse. Status quo is not going to work in the future...
auburnite,
According to an article in the Sacto Bee last January/February the average family in L.A. uses just about half as much water as the same size family in Sacramento. People in So Cal are already using a lot less water than their Nor Cal counterpart.
All that means is people in the North need to get onto the conservation band-wagon as part of the over-all solution. No one wants mandatory water rationing, but that's the hammer that will be held over our heads unless we all voluntarily change the way we think and act about water usage.
As a point-of-origin county, and one of the oldest water rights communities, Placer should get plenty of water to do with as we like. But that's not the solution that will keep the So Cal water dogs away from this source forever, and it may not even keep them away in the short term.
Plain and simple, because of the way the politics will play out statewide, we need to make voluntarily drastic cuts in the way we use water in order to uphold any righteous claim. The state will possibly disregard the old rules when it comes to water rights if the looming crisis gets worse very quickly, and they'll re-allocate Placer's traditional portion to other areas of the state. Things could easily get real ugly.
The So Cal's have the political clout to foist their will upon us in a "crisis" situation, and they'll do it without any remorse if push comes to shove. Believe it!
The Feds could step in and help, much like we're seeing Rep McClintock attempt right now, but we can't count on that being enough to staunch the onslaught once the So Cal legislators taste blood in the water.
Push comes to shove and this is going to be a really nice area where the water goes away very quickly on it's way to So Cal!
No matter which way they go the new legislation is bound to be food for lawyers.
gregcalac I do agree that the residenal water useage in the north should be more conservative, ag use still outweighs any other use 100 fold or more, and keeping our water here should be paramount. And pumping water in the state to fulfill the need is also the single largest user of energy, so there is a two fold issue, water and energy.
We have to be careful that we are not held HOSTAGE to enviromental groups. Now these people have very good intentions I believe that but they seem to totally over look at the overall good of everyone in this state . I don't think they care about north or south. But a few rafters , kayakers and certain species of creatures etc. etc. etc. in the state. Common Sense = Logic ???
auburnite,
Pumping water in the state will continue regardless of what other changes are made to allocations. Water from the North will always be sent South.
Those state legislators from the South looking for more water for their districts might consider any nose-thumbing from the North as a red cape before a bull. We shouldn't shrink from the righteous position that this water that comes from the Sierra in our county is ours, but care needs to be taken to not tempt thirsty politicians into doing something rash in order to appease their constituents. Conservation is a prudent path to tread in order to demonstrate the seriousness of the water situation.
"We shouldn't shrink from the righteous position that this water that comes from the Sierra in our county is ours..." and I wonder if there are like-minded individuals in the thirsty parts of the state where large amounts of taxes fall into the coffers having similar thoughts about those parts of the state when it comes to pumping money North.
Like steelybob, I too agree with McClintock but, again, he is devoid of new ideas. Not enough real world experience. This is his way to get the Auburn Dam back on the table.
There are plenty of alternatives (e.g., a SCRIBd article on desalination-ocean wave energy harnessing complexes) that would abate the problem through generation of more water in San Diego and LA. Thus, less goes south from up here. Both the farmers and environmentalists get taken care of that way. Unfortunately, we have need the politicians from local regional state and federal to take care of this problem, but most are inept at getting their collective acts together on this issue.
I am in agreement with Aburnite. We live in a Mediterranean climate and need to be planting crops that do well in that environment. We need to come up with a multiyear plan that will alow our farmers to transition away from crops that require flooding (rice, etc.) and towards more sustainable agriculture. We do not have a monsoon season, like southeast Asia. So it is crazy that we grow crops that require such wet conditions. We can't just give the farmers all the water they need when it is being used so wastefully. I understand this will be a long process (decades long) to transition towards drought tolerant crops but it HAS TO be part of this discussion.
Look, McClintock is only interested in selling the CA 04's district's water down to Southern California, where he gets his donations from.
That way, he gets more money.
Can't believe how naive some people are. But then again, we do also have a lot of con artists working the Republican Party line here on a daily basis. And during the last election they proved about half the voters in the district are dumber than a box of rocks.
McClintock is one of the most rabidly ignorant, anti environmental and anti scientific congresspeople in the federal legislature.