U.S. Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), David Valadao (R-CA) and Ken Calvert (R-CA) commended President Donald Trump’s Oct. 19 executive order, which they said will improve water access, infrastructure and storage in their home state of California.
“My number one priority has always been to deliver more water to the Central Valley,” said Rep. Denham, referring to his California district. “This order will reduce regulatory burdens and promote more efficient environmental reviews of California water storage projects, ensuring that valley farmers and residents have a supply of water for generations to come.”
Among several provisions in the Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West, the lawmakers are particularly pleased with the inclusion of work to be done in their home state.
Specifically, according to the memorandum, the U.S. secretaries of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Commerce Department have 30 days from the date of the memo to identify major water infrastructure projects in California for which the two departments will have joint responsibility.
Within the 30-day time period, whichever department takes the lead on each project also must identify the possible regulations and procedures that are hampering the project and then devise a proposed plan “to appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind any regulations or procedures that unduly burden the project beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law,” according to Trump’s order.
Within 40 days of the date of the memo, the two secretaries also must develop a timeline for completing applicable environmental compliance requirements for their identified projects and complete them “as expeditiously as possible, and in accordance with applicable law.”
In a joint statement released by Reps. Denham, McCarthy, Valadao and Calvert, along with Reps. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), and Devin Nunes (R-CA), the lawmakers said the president’s order is a huge relief for California farmers.
“Due to the actions of environmental extremists and overzealous bureaucrats, California has been suffering from a years-long water crisis that has wreaked havoc in Central Valley farming communities that feed tens of millions of Americans,” the delegation said. “Productive land has gone fallow and farmworkers have lost their jobs. Communities across California have also been devastated as senseless government regulations have mandated that billions of gallons of water be flushed out to the ocean and wasted.”
The House members said Trump’s executive action includes a set timetable for rewriting the biological opinions that they think are the root of the state’s water crisis.
“This executive action also prioritizes building critical projects to expand water storage in our state so that we can store more water during wet years for use in dry years,” said the lawmakers, who commended Trump for taking decisive action.
The presidential memo, they added, will reduce bureaucratic roadblocks, address Sacramento’s water grab from local officials, and ramp up water supplies to numerous farms and communities around California.
Rep. Denham said the order directly addresses hydroelectric relicensing, a process he thinks has been stalled by Sacramento bureaucrats who seek to shut down hydropower generation in his district.