Let's Capture and Use This January's Rain and Snow

by Gary Toebben

The New Year has delivered the first long, steady rain and snow to California in a long time. Our reservoirs are refilling and our groundwater basins are beginning to replenish.

This is not the time, however, to exhale and assume our water crisis is over. While up to 40 percent of the State is no longer in a drought, that is not the case for Southern California, where some parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties are still classified as "extreme drought." The Metropolitan Water District's regional reservoirs remain at much lower levels than at the beginning of the drought, in part because much of the rain we have received was not captured, it simply flowed to the ocean. We still lack the infrastructure to secure our long-term water reliability and resiliency.

Gov. Brown's California WaterFix will do just that. In tandem with the Governor's EcoRestore Plan, these two projects are designed to attain the co-equal goals of water security and environmental restoration. Major progress was made at the end of 2016 when the California WaterFix's final EIR was released. The EIR identified the WaterFix as the preferred alternative to modernize California's primary water delivery system, guard against water supply disruptions and improve conditions for threatened and endangered fish. Following the release of this study, President Obama's administration announced its plan to move quickly to complete preliminary federal studies this month. While final approval will fall to the incoming presidential administration, this action represents crucial progress.

We took another solid step forward at the end of last year when federal legislation crafted by Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was approved by Congress and signed by President Obama. This action will streamline approvals of water projects and authorize the pumping of more water to the Central Valley and Southern California that would otherwise go unused and flow to the ocean. More rain and snow alone is not a fix unto itself. Our water infrastructure statewide is so old that we are often not able to capture and store the bounty of major rains for drier days ahead.

Twenty-six million people, businesses and farms depend on the State Water Project and Central Valley Project for clean, reliable water supplies. The WaterFix is the best way to ensure that the economic health and quality of life for us all is secure. In the coming months, the Chamber will continue our long-standing advocacy for moving this project forward. Join us as we discuss this effort at our Energy, Water and Environmental Sustainability Council this week and urge our legislators to support the WaterFix at both our ACCESS Sacramento and Washington, D.C. trips in the coming months.

And that's The Business Perspective.