[env-trinity] E&E Daily: Drought bill negotiations 'hot and heavy' -- Feinstein

[Tom Stokely]

E&E Daily
WATER: 
Drought bill negotiations 'hot and heavy' -- Feinstein 
Debra Kahn and Nick Juliano, E&E reporters
Published: Thursday, January 8, 2015
Negotiations between California lawmakers over water management during the state's historic drought are continuing, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday.
Congressional solutions to California's drought over the past year have centered on increasing water deliveries to farms and cities in the southern half of the state. To do that, lawmakers have targeted Endangered Species Act protections for delta smelt and several salmon species that inhabit the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the state's main water hub, inflaming long-standing geographic tensions in the state over how much water is reserved for farms versus endangered fish and other species.
Feinstein's attempts to reach a compromise with the Central Valley contingent of California's House delegation broke down at the end of last year, but work is ongoing with a bill expected fairly soon, she said in an interview.
"It's something that we're working hot and heavy on and trying to see where we are," she said yesterday. "There are a number of people I want to sit down and discuss it with before and try to see that we get some wide input into it."
"It's not imminent," she added.
Northern California Democrats had objected to last year's negotiations, in which both chambers passed bills. The Senate held no hearings on Feinstein's legislation, S. 2198, which was considered a short-term solution.
The House bill that passed in February, H.R. 3964, would have gone further, undoing a San Joaquin River restoration program that has been the object of a court settlement and intricate compromises between state and federal officials for decades, as well as capping the delivery of water for environmental purposes, lengthening irrigation contracts and lifting certain environmental protections in area watersheds, among other controversial provisions (E&E Daily, Nov. 20, 2014).
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who co-sponsored another bill, H.R. 5781, that passed the House last month, downplayed the potential effects of last year's legislation.
"It wasn't a plot or conspiracy of any kind," he said in an interview yesterday. "It was just trying to create more flexibility, under the existing biological opinions, to divert stormwater when it's going through." The biological opinions under the Endangered Species Act, which reserve water for fish in the delta during sensitive ecological periods, are a prime target for water contractors in the central and southern parts of the state, who have so far failed to overturn them in the courts (E&ENews PM, Dec. 22, 2014).
Calvert said he hasn't seen a new bill from Feinstein yet. "I know she's worked hard on it, and I'm looking forward to working with our colleagues here in the House to do a bill and eventually getting back to conference again and trying to work out a solution that we can get enough support to pass," he said.
One of the most ardent foes of the legislation, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), has retired. And with the Senate now under Republican control, it would seem easier than ever to bypass Democratic opposition.
But Calvert hedged when asked if the new Congress would improve the drought legislation's chances. "Water is water. It has no partisan divide," he said. "It's probably one of the more complex issues in the country.
"There's some people you can't come to an agreement with, under any circumstances."
Calvert also said he envisioned more long-term language dealing with water storage, which has proved more popular with Californians on both sides of the aisle.
"In the end, we need more storage," he said. "If you believe that climate change is here, whether it's for whatever reason, then you don't have as much snowpack. So we're going to have to catch that stormwater when it's raining.
"A lot of our friends in the environmental movements have said that they are in favor of storage, and it can be used also for environmental benefits," he said. "Well, let's see where we're at on this, because this is where we're going to have to go, ultimately."
On Tuesday, California Rep. Jim Costa, a Central Valley Democrat who also supported the House bills, said he thought a Senate bill would be out soon, covering "most of those issues that we had agreed on" last year.
"There certainly are enough votes in the House to pass it, and Senator Feinstein's the best judge to determine whether or not she thinks she can put the votes together in the Senate," he said in an interview in Fresno. "We'll see."
An environmentalist who has been following the debate said she wasn't aware of any talks between Feinstein and wildlife advocates. "If she's broadening out the list of people, I'm not sure who the list is," said Kim Delfino, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife.
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