House Dems propose increasing storage to deal with Calif. drought

E&E News
By Debra Kahn
March 4, 2014

House Democrats are proposing a long-term fix to California's historic drought in hopes of bringing together bitter opponents in the state's water wars.

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) introduced a trio of bills Friday to expand existing reservoirs and build one new facility on California's rivers. By taking more water off the rivers during floods, the state would have more supplies when rain is scarce, he argued.

"Every region and political interest in the state agree that we must expand our storage capacity," Costa said in a statement. "After three dry years, the case for this is being made every day as our reservoirs statewide are turning into mud pits during this drought."

The bills would expand three existing or planned facilities that have long been discussed as potential candidates for increasing the state's water supply.

H.R. 4125 would expand Shasta Dam, on the Sacramento River, to add 634,000 acre-feet of storage to its existing 4.5-million-acre-foot capacity. It would cost $1.1 billion.
H.R. 4126 would expand San Luis Reservoir, a joint federal-state project that stores water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for irrigating farmland in the Central Valley. For $360 million, the project would expand the reservoir's existing 1.25-million-acre-foot capacity by 130,000 acre-feet.
H.R. 4127 would build new storage on the upper San Joaquin River, a proposed project known as Temperance Flat, for $2.5 billion. The reservoir would be able to hold 1.3 million acre-feet of water.

The bills are backed by a geographically diverse subset of California Democrats: Two of Costa's co-sponsors, Reps. John Garamendi and Ami Bera, represent the Sacramento region, which has long been wary of any proposals that would take more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which supplies 25 million people and 3 million acres of farmland. Costa and Rep. Sam Farr are from the middle of the state (Farr supports only the San Luis bill), while Reps. Juan Vargas and Tony Cardenas represent Southern California.

Other bills dealing with the state's searing drought have separated lawmakers along geographic as well as party lines.

A bill from Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) that passed the House last month would reverse environmental restrictions for fish and send more water to farmers in the Central Valley. Another measure, introduced last month by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), would provide funding for conservation, crop protection, water exchanges and other tools, as well as direct federal agencies to maximize water deliveries under current state and federal environmental laws protecting fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (E&ENews PM, Feb. 21).

A Costa staffer said storage is the "glue" that unifies the delegation.

"The congressman believes that storage is the glue that will hold together any compromise drought legislation," spokeswoman Jessica Kahanek said. "This is intended to keep us moving forward to deal with California's short- and longer-term water needs. In addition, Costa is carrying the House companion to Feinstein and voted for Valadao's bill. He will support any good-faith effort to bring more water reliability to the state."

Obama administration officials have questioned storage's potential to help California out of its drought. On a call with reporters ahead of President Obama's trip to the Central Valley last month, officials said the problem stems from a lack of water, not a lack of storage.

"The problem in California is not that we don't have enough reservoirs," said John Holdren, Obama's top science adviser. "The problem is that there's not enough water in them. ... It wouldn't help to build any more."

Environmentalists came out against the bills, saying the dams would not be worth their cost and could flood hiking trails, Native American cultural resources, and habitat for threatened and endangered species, in the case of the Temperance Flat proposal.

"We're not at a point of rational discourse here," said Ron Stork, a senior policy staffer with Friends of the River in Sacramento. "These are political dams. They're not dams that the bean-counters would ever build."

But the House's appetite for dams may increase. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) is expected to introduce a bill later this week to advance the Sites Reservoir, a project north of the delta that would store Sacramento River water.

Garamendi, who is working with LaMalfa on the bill, said in an interview yesterday that increasing surface storage is essential to fixing California's water woes, along with conservation, groundwater management and other measures.

"He doesn't know a gallon of water from an acre-foot," he said of Holdren's stance. "That's the most foolish statement I've heard."