REP. CALVERT GIVES SPEECH ON HOUSE FLOOR ON CALIFORNIA WATER CRISIS

Today Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA) gave the following speech on the House floor:

"Madam Speaker I rise today because California is in the middle of a water crisis.

"California's current drought is not like other droughts because California is suffering from a devastating combination of a natural dry spell and a federally-imposed dry spell.

"In December 2007, a federal judge ordered restrictions on water project operations in the Delta to help protect a threatened fish species, the Delta smelt. The negative impacts have been extraordinary. The restrictions have resulted in the loss of nearly a third of the water supply that 25 million Californians depend on from the Delta operations. Farm land throughout California's central valley is going fallow while workers struggle to find work. In southern California, economic growth is being thwarted because any new construction is jeopardized by a lack of a proven water supply.

"There is no evidence that the federally-imposed pumping restrictions have benefitted the Delta smelt. If this Congress is going to continue to give federal agencies the authority to take actions that kill jobs and harm our economy for the benefit of a species, then the American people deserve clear and undeniable evidence that those actions actually benefit the species. Madam Speaker, it's time to put people above fish and end the harmful restrictions that have shut down the delta pumps."

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