Exclusive Q&A with U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham: Fighting for California water storage

Rep. Jeff Denham

U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) thinks the next term of Congress will present an unprecedented opportunity for federal lawmakers to reshape the nation’s critical infrastructure, especially regarding water, for generations to come.

He hopes to remain California’s representative in the U.S. House to help make it all happen.

“As an almond farmer, I know firsthand how important a stable water supply is to staying in business and feeding families across the nation,” Rep. Denham recently told The Ripon Advance.

Rep. Denham was first elected to Congress in 2010 and currently is serving a fourth term in the 115th Congress. Among myriad issues, the congressman remains focused on finding a solution to the long struggle over water storage and conveyance in his home state.

Toward solving those challenges, Rep. Denham supports streamlining California’s environmental reviews and permitting process to reduce bureaucratic red tape. In turn, critical improvements and expansion of the state’s water storage and infrastructure could get underway more quickly and efficiently, the lawmaker said.

“That means … pressing refresh on our funding streams to get our major projects across the finish line faster and cheaper,” noted the U.S. Air Force veteran.

Rep. Denham recently discussed his efforts on Capitol Hill to support constituents in California’s 10th Congressional District with The Ripon Advance.

Are California wildfires having an impact on the water reserves in your district and across the state? What solutions that you have proposed or worked on during this term of Congress would help improve the situation and how would they help, specifically?

Whether it is a record breaking wildfire year or not, we need more water storage in California. We need to be proactive in managing our forests as well. That’s why I helped to write legislation like the Electricity Reliability and Forest Protection Act and the Resilient Federal Forests Act which expedite environmental reviews for vegetation management, and my SMART Rebuilding Act to mitigate disasters by incentivizing more resilient building standards both before and after disaster strikes to save lives and taxpayer dollars.

Wildfires increase ground water runoff, putting our communities at risk for floods and diminishing our water quality. I have fought throughout my time in congress to improve our water storage and infrastructure for flood protection and supply, and right now I am also fighting hard to stop Sacramento’s water grab which would have disastrous impacts on those Valley priorities.

I recently authored two provisions that passed the U.S. House of Representatives as part of a Department of the Interior Appropriations bill. The first prevents the state from robbing water from the New Melones federal reservoir and protect it from being drained empty. The second positions my New WATER Act which finances water storage and actually builds projects that have been delayed for decades.

Why and how are the water issues being faced in your district a “social justice issue?”

Access to clean water is a basic human right – and across our state, we have faced critical shortages of water that have threatened our livelihoods, our schools, and our communities. The U.S. has abundant clean water, more than enough for everyone. We don’t have the capacity to actually capture our water supply because radical environmentalists block any attempt at new storage. Simultaneously, they want to send the little fresh water we capture out to the ocean in a misguided policy that essentially puts the wellbeing of a few fish above an entire region of people. If we actually captured the fresh water that comes from the Sierras, and there are proposed projects which would, we would have more than enough for the Valley.

You succeeded in getting House approval for your amendment to expand federal financing to water supply projects under the Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act. How does your amendment mirror the New WATER Act, H.R. 434, which you introduced in January 2017? With the bill still under subcommittee consideration in the House Natural Resources Committee, what are your plans to advance the proposal? What are the most significant benefits of the bill to residents in your district?

My New WATER Act would provide financing for water projects throughout the western United States, including new reservoirs, below ground storage projects, recycling, and desalination projects. The amendment I passed in the Department of Interior appropriations bill compliments my proposal by providing resources to an existing program, the Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (WIFIA), for the financing of the water supply projects that western states need.

In 2014, Congress established WIFIA to accelerate investment in our nation’s water infrastructure by leveraging non-federal investment with long-term, low-cost supplemental loans for regionally and nationally significant projects. Water supply or reclamation projects are eligible under the 2014 law, but thus far, EPA has only been accepting loans applications for clean and drinking water type projects. Furthermore, it took four years for WIFIA to even issue its first loan for a wastewater project. With the American Society of Civil Engineers already scoring our water infrastructure with a “D” rating, we just can’t afford to wait that long for reclamation projects. My amendment specifically designates funds to accelerate this process and ensure our critical water infrastructure and storage projects are able to receive the financing they so badly need.

I’m going to continue pushing to bring my New WATER Act across the finish line to address our critical water storage issues in the Central Valley. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to solve California’s water storage needs, and I’m advocating for major water projects like the enlargement of Shasta Dam, construction of Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat Dam, and expanding of Los Vaqueros Reservoir which, combined, would add at least 4 million acre-feet of available water for our state, help with flood control, ecosystem restoration and water quality, and generate more clean hydropower for our communities.

How would your New WATER Act improve water storage in the state? How important are the California Water Commission’s recent water bond allocations for storage projects? What will the funding support?

More water storage in California is vital, and we must start building now before the next major drought. In order to accomplish this, we need participation from all levels of government. New WATER financing would provide a federal incentive, a low-interest loan, to leverage state, local, and private dollars.

The state water commission’s recent announcement of nearly $2.7 billion in Proposition 1 water bond allocations for water storage projects in the Valley – including Sites, Los Vaqueros, and Temperance Flat reservoir – is frankly, long overdue. Also, my preference would be for Sites to receive a larger allocation. The fact that it took this long to secure those funds underscores the need for my New WATER Act, which would lower the cost of these projects and the rates for water users. This will provide certainty to these projects while saving millions.

In your opinion, what would be the overall impact on your district’s residents, farms, communities, and economy without federal-level changes to water policy? Why are California’s water issues important to the rest of the nation?

Here in the Central Valley, we feed the world, and without water, that can’t happen. Our communities, our economy, and a large portion of our domestic agricultural production relies on California water resources to survive.

Without federal level changes to water policy, not only will we be left unprepared for the next drought with insufficient water storage and infrastructure, but the state’s dangerous water grab will be allowed to continue, sending more of our supply into the ocean, crippling our Central Valley economy, farms and communities.

The state’s plan would siphon off at least 40 percent of our rivers – essentially flushing significant amounts of our usable water directly into the ocean. This is the same water our school districts use for our children, our communities pull from our wells, and our farmers use to irrigate crops. In forcing its agenda, the state continues to ignore concerns raised by scientists, economists, our irrigation districts, government officials and comments from more than 6,000 local residents. It has become clear that we cannot rely on the state to act in the best interests of the Central Valley. I’m standing up for our community and working on the federal level to stop the state water grab in its tracks.

Now that the U.S. Department of the Interior has agreed that the State Water Resources Control Board’s Bay-Delta plan should be reconsidered and rescheduled to allow for further review, what are your next steps in protecting your Central Valley constituents’ water reserves? How will your plan sustain or grow the region’s economy?

Our water, our water rights, and our future depend on stopping this wasteful plan. After touring our local reservoirs at my request, Secretary Zinke recognizes that Sacramento’s water grab would devastate the Central Valley. We can’t allow the state to drain our reservoirs and ignore our concerns, and I will continue fighting to ensure Central Valley voices are heard.

We need to continue working together in the Valley to put a stop to this water grab, and I will continue working with Secretary Zinke and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and other agencies to address our concerns on a federal level since there would be severe impacts to federal law and projects. I will also continue the push in Congress to ensure my amendment to stop the water grab is passed through the U.S. Senate and signed into law. We need more water in the Valley, not less, and I will continue to exhaust all available options to make that possible.

You would like to set up an infrastructure bank to utilize water storage. How would this work and why would it benefit residents in your district?

We need to make sure our infrastructure projects, across all modes, have access to financing programs. My WIFIA amendment ensures that certain water projects can receive financing, but we need to go further. WIFIA is for water, there is a surface financing program for highways and a railroad financing program, too. In effect, these programs act as infrastructure banks. Hard federal dollars are hard to come by because you either need to generate revenue or take money from another program. These financing programs will increase public-private partnerships, non-federal investment, and allow the Central Valley and the rest of the country to upgrade its infrastructure and bring it into the 21st century.

How would you prioritize water during the next session of Congress?

As an almond farmer, I know firsthand how important a stable water supply is to staying in business and feeding families across the nation. We need to improve and expand our water storage and infrastructure and California, and that means streamlining our environmental reviews and permitting and pressing refresh on our funding streams to get our major projects across the finish line faster and cheaper. We will rethink the way we generate revenue and invest those dollars, including financing and public-private partnerships. It is important that Congress stays committed to the two-year Water Resources Development Act cycle, which I am. I am very focused on ensuring full funding for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF). Congress has been hitting the HMTF targets and ensure that we continue to do so. The next Congress will have an unprecedented opportunity to reshape our nation’s infrastructure for generations to come.