On October 1, 2018 Congressman Tom McClintock, along with Congressmen Jeff Denham, David Valadao, Devin Nunes, and Kevin McCarthy met with President Donald Trump as he signed a water memorandum that will return water to the Central Valley of California. It will also address water projects in Washington and Oregon.
As we have seen, the choices we made two generations ago that imposed laws that made it cost-prohibitive to develop our water resources have turned our Central Valley into a desert. These five Congressmen are responsible for bringing this to the attention of our President, and the signing of this memorandum will move us back toward an era of abundance instead of scarcity and rationing.
Secretaries Zinke and Ross will be working with the EPA to speed up environmental reviews and obtain Federal approval that will streamline western water infrastructure and regulatory processes. It will remove unnecessary burdens that obstruct, delay, curtail, impede or otherwise impose significant costs on the permitting, utilization, transmission, delivery, or supply of water resources and infrastructure.
Tom McClintock has said many times that water shortages are our fault. We have an abundance of water in California, but the supply has been cut off artificially. California has the largest agricultural industry in the country, and it’s high time we brought it back.
Growing food is not wasting water. Letting our water out into the ocean to try and save a bait fish is, and it has done nothing to solve the problem. Those responsible say that we now have to release even more water to save the fish. This needs to stop, so the thousands of acres of land that have been laid fallow can be returned to productivity. This will great for the people who don’t have adequate drinking water, the farmers, and for recreation. It will also be great for the environment, and will create jobs.
I applaud Tom McClintock and his colleges for taking this bold step to solve our water problems in the West, and will continue to support and vote them into office. Please join me in his re-election, he is a man who really cares about us and works very hard for us.
Kevin Barry
Sierra Nevada Human Rights Alliance
