“After more than two years of negotiations, Senate Republicans have reached an agreement with the majority party that meets the water supply needs of California’s growing cities and farms. The agreement would implement a strategy that includes conservation, storage facilities, recycling, and Delta protection measures,” said Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth.
With hundreds of thousands of acres fallow and tens of thousands of unemployed farmers and farm workers, this comprehensive water package represents a step toward getting water flowing and helping people get back to work.”
California’s water system was last upgraded in 1960, for a population of 15.8 million. Currently 36 million individuals call California home and, according to the California Department of Finance, over 59 million individuals will live here by 2050.
In 2005, enough water to supply 13 million families for a year was lost to the sea because there was nowhere to store it. Securing storage capacity for water created by rainfall and snow melts has been a key point Republicans have pushed for in this comprehensive water legislation. Likewise, ensuring California’s enormously important agricultural industry gets the water it needs to feed our economy has been a critical point Republicans have sought to include.
“It is important that this water measure address not only environmental and individual needs, but that economic uses of water resources are factored into this water use plan. From a practical standpoint, increasing water storage is a no-brainer when the state faces such severe water shortages in the future and has lost such a significant amount of water due to inadequate storage capacity,” said Hollingsworth.
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