Rep. Jared Huffman Tries Crowdsourcing to Battle Drought
After three years of failure by Congress to address California’s drought, Rep. Jared Huffman invited every Californian on Wednesday to provide ideas and comments on a big new water bill he is drafting, a novel application of crowdsourcing to federal legislation.
The San Rafael Democrat introduced the legislation on his website, soliciting comments from the public and interested parties.
Huffman’s approach is in contrast to secret talks that have been under way since last year between House Republicans from the San Joaquin Valley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which have focused on getting more water to farmers.
“Backroom deals and secret water grabs just don’t work,” Huffman said in an interview.
On his website, Huffman accused “some in Congress” of treating the drought “as a political opportunity instead of a moral imperative,” saying they have “dusted off the same political agenda they’ve pursued for years: weakening environmental laws, gutting fishery protections, and redirecting water needed by other regions — and tried to sell it as a drought response.”
Feinstein said in a statement, “I agree with Congressman Huffman that we need a drought bill that benefits different parts of the state, which is why I have met with him to discuss his bill and hope to include some of his ideas in the bill I’m developing. I look forward to continuing to work with him as this process continues.”
Huffman and other Bay Area Democrats have fought Feinstein and House Republicans for years over water, attempting to block efforts to take more from the the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to send to cities and farms to the south.
Huffman’s bill has a heavy emphasis on water recycling and reuse. But it also calls for increased federal spending on techniques he said could stretch supplies by increasing irrigation efficiency, drilling wells, building pipelines and reducing evaporation throughout the delivery system.
For the longer term, the bill calls for a new push on desalination, storm water capture and increased water storage, including speeding dam feasibility studies.
One of the more novel ideas is to use solar panels to cover canals and reservoirs to reduce evaporation loss. For every 1 million acre-feet of water shipped through the federal Central Valley Project, only 850,000 acre-feet are delivered, and the rest is lost to evaporation and seepage, Huffman’s office said. Royalties from the solar-power generation would go to local governments and a new fund for fish and wildlife.
The legislation would draw on a $9 billion fund accumulated by the Bureau of Reclamation over decades that has not been used for water projects.
Huffman said he has been working on the legislation for months, seeking ideas from academics, state and federal water officials, members of Congress and various stakeholders, including farmers and environmentalists. After hearing input from the public, Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the water, power and oceans panel of the House Natural Resources Committee, plans to introduce the legislation this month.
The bill may get scant traction in the Republican-controlled Congress, but Huffman said that’s no reason not to try.
“I would hope the fact that I’m in the minority doesn’t mean good ideas can’t receive consideration in the greatest deliberative body on Earth,” Huffman said. “It’s meant to set a new tone and new approach, because obviously what’s been tried in last three years hasn’t work so well.”
Source: By Carolyn Lochhead
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