--"House Chamber, Washington, D.C. January 19, 2011. M. Speaker:
The Department of Interior issued an announcement yesterday that
perfectly illustrates the irrationality of our current approach to water
issues.
California's precipitation this season has gone off the charts.
Statewide snow water content is 198 percent of normal; in the
all-important Northern Sierra snowpack is 174 percent of normal. This is
not only a wet year -- it is one of the wettest years on record.
Yet yesterday, we have this announcement from the Department of the
Interior: that despite a nearly unprecedented abundance of water, the
Bureau of Reclamation will only guarantee delivery of 45 percent of the
California Central Valley's contracted water supply south of the Delta.
This is the same percentage they received last year with barely average
rainfall.
Department of Interior will allow only 45 percent of normal water
deliveries to California Central Valley agriculture south of the Delta.
The difference comes to 1.1 million acre-feet of water. 1.1 million acre
feet.
Now consider this: since December 1st, the Central Valley Project has
released 1.4 million acre feet more water into the Pacific Ocean than
they did just last year.
Let me repeat that. At the same time this Administration is denying
California Central Valley agriculture 1.1 million acre feet of their
rightfully contracted water in one of the wettest years on record, it is
dumping 1.4 million acre feet of additional water into the Pacific Ocean.
M. Speaker, this is insane. Coleridge's lament "Water, water everywhere
but not a drop to drink" appears to have become the policy of this
administration.
The American people did not invest billions of dollars into federal
water projects so that their water can be dumped into the ocean to
please environmental extremists.
This policy may have been cheered by the previous Congress, but it won't
be tolerated by the new majority, nor by the American people.
Ironically, this announcement came on the same day that the President
ordered his agencies to identify regulatory policies that are harming
the economy.
M. Speaker, it appears the Department of Interior missed that memo."--
The whole speech is great. There is a lot more.
Video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fii1IyCJsHg>
Posted by: Threadkiller | January 27, 2011 at 10:18 AM
<http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2011/01/the-minuteman-gets-results.html?cid=6a00d83451b2aa69e20148c81087f7970c#comment-6a00d83451b2aa69e20148c81087f7970c>
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