The beginning of 2016 could be vital for Congress to help western states suffering from the drought.
Several bills have stalled in the House and Senate, despite almost a year of negotiations. Now, western lawmakers and farmers say Congress must act soon, before members break for months to campaign for the November elections.
The House in July passed a bill, introduced by Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., that mostly focused on helping California by revising regulations for managing water sources to communities, farms and factories. But that bill has stalled in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Around the same time, Democratic California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced what was widely seen as a more comprehensive bill helping many western states afflicted by the drought. That bill is also stuck in the committee.
However, Feinstein produced a draft bill on Thursday she thinks could end up being the way forward.
Those two bills have garnered most of the attention, but other drought-relief bills with more localized proposals are under consideration, including some that made it to the floors of each chamber.
Dennis Nuxoll, vice president of federal government affairs for the Western Growers Association, expects drought legislation to return to the forefront of the legislative schedule in the spring. He said the Senate energy committee likely needs to clear its plate of a bipartisan energy package and the Sportsmen’s Act, and then can once again focus on drought relief.
“It just makes sense to follow through and at least have some committee [bills] out the door,” Nuxoll said, adding that he believes drought relief legislation must come out of Congress before summer to avoid the massive breaks lawmakers are taking for the November elections.
About 45 million people live in areas affected by drought. About 63 percent of the area of the western states — Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California — are experiencing some level of drought, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s drought monitor.
California is hardest hit, since the entire state has experienced some form of drought. Nearly half the state is categorized as being in the most severe drought category, characterized by water shortages and widespread crop and pasture losses. More than 20 million Californians live in the areas most severely affected by drought, the university reports.
Feinstein’s draft bill released Thursday included both short-term and long-term provisions.
Among the short-term provisions are allowing pumping of water during winter storms without having to make up for it later, making it easier to transfer water from places with extra water to those in need. It would also extend the time for those transfers and keep the gates at the San Francisco Bay Watershed Delta open as long as possible. All of those provisions would expire two years after passage.
The long-term parts of Feinstein’s bill include $150 million more for rural communities affected by drought, $200 million for community water projects that would store and provide clean water, $600 million for water storage projects in California and other western states, $100 million for desalination projects and $200 million for 105 water recycling projects.
Those long-term provisions could end up building 132 new projects and produce 1.1 million acre feet of “new” water, according to a fact sheet.
“In my 23 years in the Senate, this has been the most difficult bill to put together. The maxim that whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting is alive and well in California,” Feinstein said.
She added, “We’ve come up with a bill that stands a real chance of being approved by both parties and signed into law. I believe this bill is the best we can do and I look forward to working with my colleagues to move it through Congress.”
Valadao’s bill would revise regulations to make it easier for people to take advantage of the water resources available in California, not necessarily creating sources such as the desalination projects included in the Senate bill.
It also would include the Water Rights Protection Act, which keeps the Departments of Interior and Agriculture from limiting water rights when issuing any land-use agreement, requiring any water user to apply for water rights, taking jurisdiction over groundwater withdrawals or infringing on the rights of a state when evaluating waters that start on federal land but are managed by the state.
Valadao painted a dire picture of what would happen if there were no action on drought legislation.
“Inaction will result in the collapse of our domestic food supply,” he said.
Much of the blame for the holdup in passing a comprehensive drought relief package has been placed at the feet of California lawmakers. The negotiations are being held up by a California-centric debate over salmon and smelt migration patterns.
Most of the water in California comes from the northern part of the state, and what isn’t used by northern residents and isn’t required to make sure salmon and smelt populations stay healthy is diverted to southern California. A debate is raging about whether more water can be taken from northern California without harming those fish.
Timing may be of concern to some western lawmakers who know their states are nearing the end of their rainy season.
Senators from Washington, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona have introduced their own drought legislation. Much of these bills contain state-specific solutions, despite lawmakers acknowledging that a multi-state agreement on a long-term solution is necessary.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, emphasized as much in an October hearing about three drought bills.
“This is not just about California,” Murkowski said. “It is being felt across the Colorado River Basin, in the Pacific Northwest, and in Alaska, contributing to a terrible wildfire season this year.”
Nuxoll said he hopes enough pressure is put on lawmakers to come up with a long-term solution. Leaders from 130 organizations, including farm groups, water districts and chambers of commerce, sent letters to senators urging action on drought relief. The Western Governors Association sent a similar letter pushing for legislation as well, he said.
It’s getting to the point where the farmers Nuxoll’s group represents don’t much care about whether a comprehensive bill passes. While that remains the ideal, the sausage-making of government may require state-by-state solutions.
Nuxoll said he would like to see legislation come out of the Senate so the two chambers can come together in a conference committee and come up with a final comprehensive piece of legislation.
“Passing a bill is never a smooth exercise,” he said. “You’d like to have the individual state things and the multi-state things all wrapped up at once.”
