California to Squander Record Rains, Snowpack in Deluge of Regulations, GOP Lawmakers Say

California’s Central Valley is responsible for producing almost a quarter of the farmed goods of the country, even though it only comprises 1% of the farmland in the United States. The area is irrigated by canals and river impoundments regulated by various state and federal agencies.

In the previous years, California had been suffering from a long drought that had reduced the availability of water so much that irrigation was often scaled back, and farmers had to rely on groundwater. However, the situation has changed now with a three-month spasm of rain and snowfall that has filled the previously parched farmland, citrus orchards, and livestock grazing pastures.

Despite the record rains and snowpack, little of the water will be utilized in the future. Instead, most of it will flow into the sea because there is limited capacity to impound and store the water in the Central Valley of California.

However, efforts have been made to construct water retention and flood control projects, but unfortunately, these have been bogged down in paperwork and regulatory red tape. Republican lawmakers have proposed two bills, HR 215 and HR 872, to tackle the regulatory hurdles and enable these water infrastructure projects in California and other states of the West to move forward.

The Water Bills

HR 215, or the Working to Advance Tangible and Effective Reforms for California Act, co-sponsored by all 11 Republican California representatives, will authorize the funding of previously approved water infrastructure projects under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. This comprises about twenty dams and reservoirs with a combined capacity of up to 12 million acre-feet of water, enabling irrigation of nearly one-third of California’s agricultural land.

HR 872, or the Federally Integrated Species Health Act, would consolidate all regulations under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and effectively establish a single regulatory agency for all endangered fish species. This will prevent conflicting mandates between agencies and the occasional operational contradictions that arise because of such conflicts.

The bills aim to alleviate the regulatory burden on the projects that have been stagnating due to bureaucratic inefficiencies while also cleaning up some of the outdated and inefficient regulations that have led to the stifling of the development of vital water infrastructure.