By Don A. Wright
Unless you’ve been living with an undiscovered tribe in an Amazonian rainforest or on Mars; let’s not say Mars – that’s too cliché. Let’s say you’re living on Uranus. Then you should know there is an election taking place in America. For the San Joaquin Valley elections are extremely important in ways that won’t matter as much to the rest of
California. A great majority of our surface water comes through state and federally owned conveyance systems. With one of the largest agricultural based economies on earth water is as essential an input material for crops as aluminum is for building airplanes. These are the crops that feed much of the United States and many throughout the world.
Who the President and the Governor choose to appoint to key positions in their administrations plays a very big role in the people of the Valley’s wellbeing. On the federal side those who hold office in the House and Senate also play a big role. They are keepers of the purse strings and write the legislation the administration is supposed to follow. Since California is such a lopsided, one party rule the Assembly and the State Senate are part of the blob but can still pack a nasty sting that sometimes won’t go away for – ever. All that to say elections matter.
Federal Water in the San Joaquin Valley
Much of the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley surface water needs are served by the federal Central Valley Project. The CVP stretches from Lake Shasta near the Oregon border to almost the foot of the Tehachapi mountains in Kern County. Water released from Shasta Dam flows down the Sacramento River with diversions to Sacramento to the Delta where it is pumped at the Jones Pumping Plant to continue south.
Elections Matter
We spoke with Valley Congressman David Valadao about the federal government’s role in San Joaquin Valley water supplies.
WW: What are some of the water milestones you’ve seen during your time in Congress?
DV: Getting the WINN Act signed into law was a huge accomplishment and something that helped us a great deal here in the Valley. Having the 2019 Biological Opinions signed was another accomplishment. It helped us with the way we’re able to move water through the Delta.
WW: You were instrumental in writing the WINN Act. Please explain what the WINN Act does.
DV: The WINN Act was a huge help for us here in the Valley in helping us move water through the Delta and investing in water storage infrastructure. The law authorized hundreds of millions of dollars for water storage projects here in the Valley, like the much-needed repairs to the Friant-Kern canal. It also provided increased operational flexibility for the Central Valley Project and State Water Project.
WW: What can the House do to further water for the SJV?
DV: The House has passed my bill, the WATER for California Act, off of the House floor this Congress. Unfortunately, it has stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. This bill extends the operations and storage provisions of the WIIN Act, which would help provide access to safe, clean, and reliable water for our communities. It also makes the Shasta Dam project eligible for Infrastructure bill funding, which is the most cost-effective water storage project on the table in California right now. This project was purposefully excluded from the Infrastructure bill, which was one of the reasons I voted no. The bill also codifies the 2019 BiOps and brings more transparency to Reclamation’s allocation process.
WW: What are your water goals for the next term?
DV: Renewing the operations and storage provisions of the WINN Act. Holding the Bureau of Reclamation accountable and bringing more transparency to their allocation process. Central Valley Project contractors rely on meaningful allocations from Reclamation for their yearly planning – including the type of crops they’ll plant and when. This year, despite all of our reservoirs being above the 15-year average, Reclamation announced just a 15% allocation for South-of-Delta contractors in February. Then they gradually moved this number up over the course of the next few months to finally get them up to 50% in June. This left many folks frustrated that they could’ve had the 50% allocation in February before planting season.
Bringing more federal funding to our community for clean water projects. This year I was able to get the city of Delano $6 million to build a new well through Community Project Funding. I’m going to keep working to bring taxpayer dollars back for clean water projects.
WW: How dependent on the Senate and the Administration are these goals and what can you do to further them as a Congressman?
DV: Without help from our California Senators, none of these goals are possible. The late Senator Dianne Feinstein was a huge help for us on water and was instrumental in helping us get the WINN Act across the finish line. We need strong advocates for California water in the Senate and I hope that our next California Senator is open to working with me on this.
As for the administration – the Biden administration has been a disaster on California water policy. Since day one, his Bureau of Reclamation has tried to overturn the 2019 BiOps, which were started under President Obama and signed by President Trump. They’ve ignored science and reinitiated consultation of these BiOps with no explanation. This has caused significant uncertainty for Central Valley farmers about the future of their water supply, and I’ve led several efforts to obtain answers from Interior about their attempts to reverse them. All requests for information have gone unanswered. We need an administration that will actually follow the science instead of trying to score political points with extreme environmentalists.
The CVP For Further Reference
We hear a lot about the Central Valley project. But what is it? The following should help describe it. According to the United States Bureau of Reclamation website the CVP reaches some 400 miles, from the Cascade Mountains near Redding in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains near Bakersfield in the south.
The CVP consists of 20 dams and reservoirs, 11 powerplants, and 500 miles of major canals, as well as conduits, tunnels, and related facilities. It manages some 9 million acre-feet of water and annually delivers about 7 million acre-feet of water for agricultural, urban, and wildlife use.
The CVP provides about 5 million acre-feet for farms – enough to irrigate about 3 million acres, or roughly one-third of the agricultural land in California. It furnishes about 600,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial use – enough to supply close to 1 million households with their water needs each year. It also dedicates 800,000 acre-feet per year to fish and wildlife and their habitat and 410,00 acre-feet to State and Federal wildlife refuges and wetlands, pursuant to the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The following links provide information on major features of the various divisions and units in the Central Valley Project:
- Auburn-Folsom South Unit of the American River Division
- Delta Division
- Folsom and Sly Park Units of the American River Division
- Friant Division
- New Melones Unit of the East Side Division
- Sacramento Canals Unit of the Sacramento River Division
- San Felipe Division
- San Luis Unit of the West San Joaquin Division
- Shasta/Trinity River Divisions
Well, there you go. As you can see down ticket votes matter to California water and particularly Central Valley agriculture as much as presidential votes.
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