[env-trinity] Calif. drainage deal blocked on Hill, but will return

[Tom Stokely]

https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/11/09/stories/1060066163

WESTERN WATER

Calif. drainage deal blocked on Hill, but will return
Michael Doyle and Jeremy Jacobs, E&E reportersPublished: Thursday, November 9, 2017The Westlands Water District and its political allies must look for other ways to secure a controversial irrigation drainage deal after Congress didn’t include it in a defense bill. Westlands Water DistrictWestlands Water District and its well-placed political allies must find another way to push a controversial irrigation drainage deal, now that congressional lawmakers have kept it off an unrelated defense bill.Ending one backstage battle, but not the war, senators have rejected a House GOP proposal to add the Westlands drainage legislation authored by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) to the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (Greenwire, Nov. 3).Westlands and its allies, recognizing their defense bill gambit might fail, vowed to keep trying."We are still going to look for every possible vehicle to get this done," Westlands Deputy General Manager Johnny Amaral said in an interview. "This is a large problem. It's coming to a head, and if it doesn't get resolved by Jan. 15, there will be consequences."Valadao echoed those remarks."Congressman Valadao has always, and will continue to, pursue every available legislative option to increase water deliveries to the Central Valley," Valadao's spokeswoman, Anna Vetter, said late last week.The Westlands drainage maneuvering now appears likely to mirror California Republicans' previous efforts to tack a drought bill onto every feasible legislative package moving through Congress. After trying for several years, the lawmakers succeeded in adding that to a popular infrastructure bill that passed last December.The fiscal 2018 defense bill, now being finalized by House and Senate negotiators, was the first vehicle tried this year by supporters of the Westlands deal.Environmental groups, including Restore the Delta, sent a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week urging him to oppose the rider. They contended that it "is not germane to the Armed Services Committee," which McCain chairs."We would simply ask that you refuse to accept this rider," they wrote, "and help ensure" that the legislation "is subject to public hearings and regular order if it is to be considered further."California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein "was opposed to including the bill in the defense authorization legislation," spokesman Tom Mentzer said today.Opponents of the drainage settlement expect the rider will return later this year, potentially on must-pass legislation such as raising the debt ceiling or funding the federal government."Each time you win one of these, or stop this end-run around regular process and public disclosure, they try another sneak route," Patricia Schifferle, director of Pacific Advocates and a longtime Westlands critic, said today. "They can't stand public scrutiny."Valadao's rural district includes Westlands, a 600,000-acre expanse that's only slightly smaller than the land size of Rhode Island. His legislation, H.R. 1769, would implement a deal struck in 2015 between the water district and the Obama administration's Justice Department.The problem revolves around the federal government's failure to complete a promised drainage system that would remove used, tainted irrigation water from some of California's most productive agricultural land.Clay layers prevent excess irrigation water from draining into the soil. Federal officials proposed a 188-mile San Luis Drain to move subsurface water to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, but never completed it.The proposed deal would forgive a roughly $375 million debt owed by Westlands for its share of Central Valley Project construction. The CVP's network of reservoirs, canals and pumping plants enabled the Rhode Island-sized Westlands district to flourish (Greenwire, Nov. 16, 2016).The deal also would provide favorable terms on future water contracts and oblige Westlands to retire 100,000 acres. In return, the deal would relieve the federal government of the obligation to construct irrigation drainage facilities."The United States and Westlands continue to believe that implementation of the Westlands Settlement is in the public interest, as well as in the interests of Westlands and its landowners, and American taxpayers," attorneys for both sides advised a court last month.The deal settling litigation currently sets a Jan. 15, 2018, deadline for passing related legislation, though that can be extended, as has happened before.
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