[env-trinity] News -- Miller: Congressional Hearing on Bay-Delta Crisis July 2

[Byron Leydecker]

 NEWS 

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Congressman George Miller, California's 7th District

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Contact: Daniel Weiss 202-225-2095

Miller: Congressional Hearing on Bay-Delta Crisis July 2 

WASHINGTON -- A congressional panel will travel to California next month to
investigate the causes of the Bay-Delta ecosystem collapse, Congressman
George Miller (D-Martinez) announced Monday.  Miller and several of his Bay
Area colleagues requested the hearing.

The hearing will focus on the disappearing native fish populations of the
Bay-Delta and the responsibility of federal agencies to prevent species
extinction and properly manage California's water for homes, businesses, and
farms. The hearing will be conducted by the House Natural Resources
Committee's Water and Power Subcommittee, led by Chairwoman Grace Napolitano
(D-Norwalk).  It will be held in Vallejo on July 2. 

"We have an emergency on our hands," said Miller, a long-time champion of
Bay-Delta fish and wildlife issues and Congress' leading expert on
California water issues.  "California's economy and its environment need a
water policy that is not predicated on sacrificing the Delta. Right now
state and federal agencies are lurching from crisis to crisis and failing to
adapt to old problems and new challenges alike. This hearing will be an
important step in establishing a more sustainable course before the whole
system is taken over by the courts, to the detriment of both our economy and
our environment."

California's two main fresh water systems, one operated by state Department
of Water Resources and the other the federal Bureau of Reclamation, supply
water to homes, farms, and commercial and industrial entities throughout
California.  They were both temporarily shut down recently in response to
the Delta fisheries' collapse and court rulings that federal and state
agencies have violated endangered species law. The recent court actions,
coupled with new scientific reports, have drawn increased attention to the
decline of the native fish populations of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
especially the threatened delta smelt, which scientists say is in increasing
peril.  The pumps have since restarted at lower levels than usual and with
no certainty as to how long they will remain on.

On June 8, Miller led a
<http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/pdfs/bay-delta_letter6-8-07.pdf>
congressional request for the hearing. Miller was joined by five other
Bay-Delta area Members of Congress - Reps. Tauscher, Honda, Thompson,
Woolsey, and Lantos - asking that the subcommittee examine the science of
the failing estuary and determine how the federal and state agencies are
responding to the crisis. 

 

WHAT:            House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power
Hearing on "Extinction is not a Sustainable Water Policy: The Bay-Delta
crisis and the implications for California water management" 

WHEN:           Monday, July 2, 2007 
                        9:00 a.m., PST 

WHERE:          Vallejo City Council Chambers 
                555 Santa Clara Street 
                Vallejo, California 94590 

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