After Boehner took a photoop in the San Joaquin Valley the house Republicans passed legislation that would institute various measures of federal intervention in California water management. Now with Obama scheduled to make a political pit stop in the area, California's Democratic senators Feinstein and Boxer have introduced legislation in the Senate as a counter proposal to the Republican bill. Traditionally Feinstein is viewed as an ally of agribiz and Boxer as a supporter of environmental causes. However, this looks like yet another situation where partisanship tromps policy.
Sens. Feinstein, Boxer propose emergency drought legislation
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer proposed emergency drought legislation Tuesday ahead of President Obama's planned visit to Fresno, as Democrats scrambled to counter GOP charges that trying to save rivers and fish during California's historic drought is destroying the nation's chief source of fruits and vegetables.
The move by the two California Democrats greatly increases chances that Congress will pass something to get more water to Central Valley farmers.
The Senate legislation, co-sponsored by Oregon Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, would speed environmental reviews of water projects and give state and federal officials "operational flexibility" to move water south from the delta to San Joaquin Valley farms.
The bill would also authorize $300 million in emergency aid and drought relief projects such as upgrading city water systems and helping farmers conserve water. Migrant farmworkers would also get assistance.
The House passed a bill last week sponsored by three Central Valley Republicans that would permanently reallocate water from the delta to the San Joaquin Valley and halt efforts to restore flows along the length of the San Joaquin River, long stretches of which went dry after completion of the Friant Dam east of Fresno in the 1940s.
The essence of the difference would appear to be that the Republicans are trying to use the crisis of the drought as an excuse to institute permanent rollbacks to environmental protections, while the Democratic approach tends more in the direction of crisis management. One of the major environmental questions is whether this crisis can be managed in such a way as to avoid inflicting permanent environmental damage on the Sacramento delta and the San Francisco Bay.
While the politicians are wheeling and dealing, the forces of nature are rolling the dice. There has been a change in the weather pattern that prevailed for 14 months. Last week there were heavy rains across the Bay Area and into the Sierras. I was sitting right in their track. We are now drying out after widespread minor flooding and everything is now finally turning green. This week there is a weather pattern that looks
similar to the pineapple express configuration we has last week. However, this one is moving into Oregon and far northern California. That is not a bad thing. The predicted heavy rain and snowfall will be hitting the watersheds that fill the largest reservoirs.
It continues to be highly unlikely that enough rain will fall in what remains of the wet season to get California out of drought conditions. However, rain is improving the situation. Hopefully the improvement will be sufficient to give water managers sufficient wiggle room to make some kind of balance among competing interests. That might allow the politicians to kick the can down the road for another year. That is clearly their default setting.