[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 109 (Thursday, June 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2229-S2230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 2161. A bill to provide financial assistance for projects to 
address certain subsidence impacts in the State of California, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the 
Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Act, which I introduced today. 
Representative Jim Costa has introduced companion legislation in the 
House of Representatives.
  The bill authorizes one-third cost-share totaling $653 million for 
restoring the capacity of the Friant-Kern Canal, the Delta-Mendota 
Canal, and the California Aqueduct.
  Coordinated legislation in the State legislature introduced by State 
Senator Melissa Hurtado has led to a downpayment on a State cost-share 
for restoring the canals' capacity. Local water districts would be 
responsible for the remainder of the cost not covered by the State or 
Federal governments.
  In addition, the bill authorizes an additional $180 million to 
restore salmon runs on the San Joaquin River. The funding is for fish 
passage structures, levees, and other improvements that will allow the 
threatened Central Valley Spring-run Chinook salmon to swim freely 
upstream from the ocean to the Friant Dam.
  My bill would help California water users and California's Nation-
leading agriculture industry comply with a recent State requirement to 
end the overpumping of groundwater. The stakes are huge: If we don't 
bring groundwater into balance, then the San Joaquin Valley will lose 
access to about 2 million acre-feet of water per year.
  Unless local water agencies and the State and Federal governments 
act, a recent U.C. Berkeley study has projected severe impacts from 
these water supply losses: 798,000 acres of land would have to be 
retired from agricultural production, nearly one-sixth of the working 
farmland in an area that produces half the fruit and vegetables grown 
in the Nation; and $5.9 billion would be lost in annual farm income in 
a region that is almost entirely reliant on agriculture.
  One of the most economical and efficient ways to restore groundwater 
balance is to convey floodwater to farmland where it can recharge the 
aquifer. California has the most variable precipitation of any State. 
When massive storms from atmospheric rivers occur, there is runoff to 
recharge aquifers--but only if we can effectively convey the 
floodwaters throughout the San Joaquin Valley to recharge areas.
  However, the major canals are in desperate need of repair and have 
lost as much as 60 percent of their capacity. The bill I am introducing 
today would provide Federal assistance to help fix these Federal 
canals.
  Specifically, the bill would authorize $653.4 million in a Federal 
funding-cost share for three major projects to restore Federal canals 
damaged by subsidence to their former capacity: $180 million for the 
Friant-Kern Canal, which would move an additional 100,000 acre-feet per 
year on average; $183.9 million for the Delta Mendota Canal, which 
would move an additional 62,000 acre-feet per year on average; and 
$289.5 million for California Aqueduct repairs, which would move an 
additional 205,000 acre-feet per year on average. While parts of the 
California Aqueduct are State-owned, the majority of the repairs are on 
its federally owned portion.
  This will give local farmers a fighting chance to bring their 
groundwater basins into balance without being forced to retire vast 
amounts of land.
  Critically, the ability to deliver floodwaters through restored 
Federal canals will allow the water districts to invest in their own 
turnouts, pumps, detention basins, and other groundwater recharge 
projects. The South Valley Water Association, which covers just a small 
part of the valley, provided my office with a list of 36 such projects 
for its area alone.
  The Public Policy Institute of California, PPIC has determined that 
groundwater recharge projects are the best option to help the San 
Joaquin Valley comply with the new State groundwater pumping law. PPIC 
projects that the valley can make up 300,000 to 500,000 acre-feet of 
its groundwater deficit through recharge projects.
  A study commissioned by the coalition group Water Blueprint for the 
San Joaquin Valley estimates that reductions in groundwater could cause 
a loss of up to 42,000 farm and agricultural jobs in the San Joaquin 
Valley. Another 40,000 jobs or more could be lost statewide each year 
due to reductions in valley agricultural production, putting the total 
at approximately 85,000 jobs statewide. Most of these impacts will fall 
disproportionately on economically disadvantaged communities.
  Let me now turn to the three critical canals that the bill would help 
restore. The Friant-Kern Canal is a key feature of the Friant Division 
of the Federal Central Valley Project on the Eastside of the San 
Joaquin Valley. For nearly 70 years, the Friant Division successfully 
kept groundwater tables stable on the Eastside. This provided a 
sustainable source of water for farms and for thousands of Californians 
and more than 50 small, rural, or disadvantaged communities who rely 
entirely on groundwater for their household water supplies.
  But unsustainable groundwater pumping in the valley has reduced the 
Friant-Kern Canal's ability to deliver water to all who need it. Land 
elevation subsidence caused by overpumping means that not all of the 
supplies stored at Friant Dam can be conveyed through the canal. In 
some areas, the canal can carry only 40 percent of what it is designed 
to deliver.
  In 2017, a very wet year in which we should have banked as much 
floodwater as possible, the Friant-Kern Canal delivered 300,000 acre-
feet of water less than it would have conveyed before subsidence. This 
water would have helped recharge groundwater in the south San Joaquin 
Valley, where the impacts of reduced water deliveries, water quality 
issues, and groundwater regulation are expected to be most severe.
  The California Aqueduct serves more than 27 million people in 
Southern California and the Silicon Valley and more than 750,000 acres 
of the Nation's most productive farmland. But despite its name, much of 
the California Aqueduct is owned by the Federal Government and serves 
portions of Silicon Valley, small towns and communities in the northern 
San Joaquin Valley, and farms from Firebaugh to Kettleman City. The 
aqueduct represents a successful 70-year partnership between the 
Federal Government and the State of California.
  In recent years, particularly recent drought years, the California 
Aqueduct has subsided. It has lost as much as 20 percent of its 
capacity to move water to California's families, farms, and businesses. 
California is leading efforts to repair the aqueduct and is working to 
provide its share of funding, but the Federal Government will also need 
to pay its fair share. The bill I am introducing today would authorize 
$289.5

[[Page S2230]]

million toward restoring the California Aqueduct.
  The Delta-Mendota Canal stretches southward 117 miles from the C.W. 
Bill Jones Pumping Plant along the western edge of the San Joaquin 
Valley, parallel to the California Aqueduct. The Delta-Mendota Canal 
has lost 15 percent of its conveyance capacity due to subsidence. The 
bill I am introducing today would authorize $183.9 million toward 
restoring its full ability to convey floodwaters to farms needing to 
recharge groundwater and to wildlife refuges of critical importance for 
migratory waterfowl along the Pacific Flyway.
  This bill responds to a potential crisis that very possibly could 
cause the forced retirement of nearly one-sixth of the working farmland 
in an area that produces half of America's fruits and vegetables.
  These are Federal canals, and the Federal Government must help give 
these farmers and agricultural communities a fighting chance to keep 
their lands in production.
  Lastly, this legislation helps to restore a historic salmon run on 
California's second longest river, the San Joaquin.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in support of this bill.
                                 ______