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Nunes pushes for water solution in 'town hall'
More than 200 attend ‘town hall' in Fresno
FRESNO—Seeking the attention of their fellow legislators in Washington D.C., Rep. Devin Nunes and Rep. Tom McClintock hosted a spirited “town hall” Monday morning in Fresno for the public to voice concerns about the drought devastating California’s $38 billion agriculture industry. McClintock is the ranking Republican of the House Natural Resources Committee.
In Fresno City Council Chambers packed with TEA party activists, environmental lobbyists and water district representatives, frustrated east and west side farmers — in addition to concerned businessmen and residents — called the San Joaquin Valley “ground zero” and shared their distress for environmental restrictions that they say value fish, rather than humans.
The congressmen told attendees that their testimonies will be transcribed and distributed to federal lawmakers in the hope that it will spur congressional action, potentially easing their water woes.
Outlining legislation — such as the Endangered Species Act and the San Joaquin River Settlement — that steered the state where it is at today, Nunes told the crowded chambers “the water crisis has reached its pinnacle here in the Valley ... now we’re in a situation where they’re going to take away all the water from this region. This is too important to be ignored by Washington D.C. politicians.”
Environmental restrictions, coupled with a three-year drought, have caused farmers to idle hundreds of thousands of acres dusty land in the Valley, eliminating farm jobs and hurting associated businesses.
Many Republicans, like Nunes and McClintock — who believe the drought is government-imposed —are locked in a political battle with Democrats and environmentalists who favor protecting threatened fish by restricting how much water can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — the core of California’s water supply.
The discussion paralleled water meetings held across the state in the past year, and likely foreshadow more to come.
“It was another meeting with a lot of talk, but no action,” Woodlake City Councilman Rudy Mendoza said.
On Sunday in Sacramento, the National Academies of Sciences began a series of meetings to study whether the federal government should lift or modify limits on the large state and federal pumps that siphon drinking and irrigation water from the rivers that drain from the northern and central Sierra Nevada.
The delta pumps, however, also reverse the water’s flow in some areas, drawing in and killing tiny delta smelt, and misdirecting juvenile salmon who never make it out to sea.
Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, the ranking Republican on the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California were also in attendance at Monday’s Congressional Water Forum.
“This is important for all of us outside California, because you feed us,” Bishop said. “People are suffering ... it could easily be mitigated by government action.”
The more than 200 attendees applauded a bill drafted by Nunes that has floated in the House.
Nunes represents constituents in Tulare County.
His Turn on the Pumps Act would bar any sort of environmental restrictions from corking water flow to the Central Valley. He said Monday that he has gathered 100 of the 218 signature necessary to push it into the Senate, but the bill has been defeated before.
“The water supply on the west side of the Valley has nothing to with hydrology,” Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, said. “We are not going to solve this problem unless Congress turns on the pumps.”
Now the water problems that have traditionally ailed Westside farmers are surfacing on the east side of the Valley, where Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray said it is becoming more difficult to tap into ground water.
Murray said he fears that the value of Lindsay’s farmland is going to drop to lows seen in the early 1990s when bitter freezes struck citrus crops, driving unemployment to 67 percent.
The city draws nearly all of its irrigation supply from the Friant Kern Canal, which diverts water from the San Joaquin River for irrigation.
McClintock and Nunes said their pleas for assistance have been ignored by members of the Obama administration, including Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who was invited to the Monday forum, but did not attend.
“I deeply regret that this is not a formal congressional meeting,” McClintock said.
Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.
