Addressing the Water Crisis
The State of California is experiencing a drought for the third consecutive year, what many experts are calling one of the worst droughts in California history. The drought is further exacerbated by a “man-made drought” that has resulted from court and agency regulatory actions under the Endangered Species Act. The ESA has proven to be a regulatory hammer, preventing water conveyance, transfers, and storage, even when water supplies were plentiful prior to the drought. This in many ways is the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina for California's Central Valley.
 The result is that California reservoirs are dangerously low, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has issued a ZERO water supply for federal Central Valley Project water deliveries in the San Joaquin Valley. The State of California has announced a 15% supply for the State Water Project. It is estimated that over 847,000 acres of some of the world's most productive farmland will be fallowed, causing massive impacts to farms, farm workers, and farming communities. University of California, Davis has released an economic impact analysis of these reduced water deliveries, estimating as many as 80,000 jobs lost and an economic impact of as much as $2.2 billion in the San Joaquin Valley. When measured on a statewide basis, the income loss increases to $2.8 billion and more than 95,000 in jobs*. These job losses are more than GM, Ford, and Chrysler's combined losses for this last year.
Water is the life blood of rural farming communities in California's San Joaquin Valley and zero or near-zero water supplies will cripple these rural communities. Because job losses will be concentrated among low-wage farm workers who have few alternatives for other work, state and local social services budgets will be further stressed as well.
This crisis will also have an impact upon our nation's food security and food safety. Over 50% of our nation's supply of fruits, vegetables, and nuts are grown in California, and unless the federal government takes action to address the severity of this crisis, we will become even further reliant upon foreign food sources. The drought will send an additional ripple effect throughout both the state's and the nation's economies when we can least afford it. These water shortages will lead to an increase in food prices, further overwhelming consumers. Experts also predict that this crisis will put a significant dent in our nation's agricultural trade surplus. Historically, the agricultural sector has one of the few remaining trade surpluses that our nation can claim. As the top agricultural export state, California agriculture accounts for $11 billion in annual agricultural exports—over 15% of all U.S. agricultural exports.
I commend US Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Department of Interior Secretary Salazar for forming a Federal California Drought Action Team. Farmers are not seeking a bailout, but rather swift action by the federal government to blunt the impact of this crisis and get water to their farms. The federal and state governments must provide short-term relief by relaxing standards temporarily to allow water to be transferred from willing sellers to willing buyers through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta River system. The long-term solution for California's water needs requires fixing the Delta and adding to our state's water supply to maintain our farms, meet the needs of our growing cities, and provide for environmental restoration.
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