Appropriations: Reclamation Budget Hearing Prompts Bay Delta Discussion

On Wednesday, April 14, the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee held an oversight hearing on President Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the Bureau of Reclamation. The President has requested $1.1 billion overall, with $913.6 million for the Water and Related Resources account. Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle, and Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor, appeared at the hearing for the Department of Interior.

 “The situation in California’s Bay-Delta ecosystem is a full-blown crisis that requires all hands on deck. We are continuing to work hard and make progress towards providing an additional 8 to 10 percent for agriculture south of the Delta. While we must take immediate steps and stop-gap measures, we cannot lose sight of our long-term plans to help California’s situation,” Castle said.  

Responding to Castle’s remarks, Rep. Ken Calvert (R- 44) said, “I’m happy to see that Reclamation is moving forward with the intertie project, but I’m still concerned about the immediacy of this issue. We have almost 120 percent snowpack, but if we can’t pump that doesn’t do any good. I see no evidence the pumping restrictions have helped the smelt. You aren’t addressing the other reasons for the decline, as Rep.Jim Costa (D-20) has pointed out, all the other stressors from the San Francisco area. We have permanent crops that won’t survive this season.  You need to get on with the Two-Gates project.  If we can’t do short term projects how are we going to have any confidence we can move on long term projects?”

Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry (D), who described himself as a rice grower asked Commissioner Connor, “Is it possible to tell if all these measures you are describing are changing anything?” The Commissioner responded, “It is. Some are showing changes. The intertie could provide 40,000 acre feet, the existing Title XVI water recycling projects in Southern California are providing 250,000 acre feet. I don’t think they would have survived this in Southern California without those projects.”