ICYMI: Rep. Denham: Environmental policies put in place by the Administration are destroying the Central Valley

Washington, D.C. – Representative Jeff Denham stressed the devastating impact California’s man-made drought has had on the Central Valley during an interview on KMPH’s morning show “Great Day” before a Water & Power Subcommittee field hearing in Fresno yesterday.  He stated that the environmental policies put in place by the Administration are destroying the Valley and new legislation is needed to rectify the situation.

“We are going to have to change some of the environmental policy, just simply to get the pumps turned back on and really show the whole nation that we are going to have our priorities in line and people come first.” – Rep. Jeff Denham (CA-19)

WATCHRep. Denham On KMPH’s Morning Show “Great Day”:  http://bit.ly/hsE0rR

Transcript(2:40 – 3:43):

Rep. Denham On Water Storage In The Valley:… ultimately long term we have to be able to store the water, right now we are going to see flooding and, we have to be able to hold some of that water back so that we can disperse it around the Valley to make sure that farmers have water, and that all of our citizens have water on a long term basis.  But short term we are going to have to change some of the environmental policy, just simply to get the pumps turned back on and really show the whole nation that we are going to have our priorities in line and people come first. 

Reporter:We are so glad that we no longer have a drought as has been deemed by our governor, and with a great high snow pack, sadly a lot of that water is going to go right out into the ocean. 

Denham On Water Allocation In The Valley:Absolutely and I think that is one of the realities that you know we [need] to get the federal government to understand, the President to understand is that here, probably the wettest year that we have had in history, we still expect to see more precipitation, we are going to see flooding, we may need to see FEMA type issues come in, and our farmers talking about only a 60-75% of their water? Still on the wettest of years we are not going to be able to plant the crops that we should be able to plant.  

Rep. Denham Statementafter Water & Power Subcommittee hearing “Creating Jobs by Overcoming Man-Made Drought: Time for Congress to Listen and Act” in Fresno:

“Reservoirs are in flood operations in California and still our state faces a man-made drought where fellow Valley farmers are not receiving all of the water they deserve.  It was evident at the Water and Power Subcommittee hearing today that the environmental policies put in place by the Administration are destroying the Valley and new legislation is needed to rectify the situation.” –said Rep. Jeff Denham (CA-19).