Extend Operations and Maintenance for the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund (H.R. 3132)
Ensuring the residents of the San Gabriel Valley have a clean and reliable water supply for future generations to come is a top priority of mine. Although California has experienced record rainfall and significant snowpack in the upper basin of the Colorado River this year, we cannot take anything for granted and must continue to find ways to conserve water and be water wise to ensure our local communities continue to have a safe and reliable water supply.
Back in 1979, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and perchlorates, including suspected carcinogens, were discovered in a natural underground drinking water basin known as San Gabriel basin, which threatened to jeopardize the drinking water supply of 1.4 million people in L.A. County.
A big part of the solution has been the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund operated by the Water Quality Authority (WQA). The Restoration Fund has truly been a success story, a model that can be followed by other water projects. It has removed nearly 21 tons of contaminants from the groundwater basin, and has treated nearly 350,000 acre-feet of groundwater. That’s more than 50 percent of the total clean-up efforts since the contamination was discovered! Not only that, this project has also created 2,700 highly skilled jobs for our local residents.
However, authorization for the fund is about to expire, threatening water cleanup efforts. That’s why I introduced HR 3132 to provide an additional 5 years to operate and maintain any clean up project constructed under the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund. Roughly $70 million in federal funding remains available under the authorization, and we need the flexibility and additional time for the clean-up efforts.
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