Area drought subject of Congressional hearing

By SANDRA VELÁZQUEZ / Vida En El Valle
(Published Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 08:51AM)

FRESNO -- With the objective of exposing the crisis that the Central Valley is facing due to the water shortage for the crops and the response by the government to it, a congressional panel led by Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno, held a hearing of nearly three and a half hours on Monday.

The session took place at the Fresno City Council chambers in three phases. Mendota Mayor Robert Silva; Miguel Arias from the Fresno County Strategic Drought Relief Group; Fresno County Supervisors Phil Larson; and, farmers Stuart Wolf and Kole Upton participated in the first round.

Along with Costa and Napolitano, Congressmen Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, were in the panel.

During his opening statement, Nunes received a round of applause after he said, "Mother nature has been used as an excuse for the water shortage," but without big infrastructure investments the communities can't be served and "the government is in a position to solve this situation, it just needs leadership."

Larson was also blunt and mentioned the closing of several schools in Firebaugh and Kerman as a result of the economic crisis that has generated the drought this year. "We have studied this to death," he said and pointed out that the court "is made up of laws and the laws should change," referring to the necessity to legislate so that pumping more water from the Delta smelt is allowed.

Silva exposed the critical situation that Mendota is going through mentioning that 23 percent of the city's population is unemployed. He said that adding undocumented residents, the jobless rate jumps to 50 percent.

Silva said that due to the devastating situation, school enrollment has decreased and crime has increased.

Wolf said he would recommend to rest of his family to invest in the agriculture business somewhere else, due to the situation that Valley farmers are going through.

Upton said the Delta smelt is in the worse condition possible and that the benefits to the environment have not been seen regardless of the water restrictions. He also called for emergency legislature if the water rationalization has not generated a better situation and that the public use of water under the same standard be considered.

"The time to talk and listen is over," he pointed out.

Napolitano, chair of the House Water and Energy Sub-committee addressed the audience during the second round. She asked "why does the Legislature go on vacation," before the critical drought situation.

Before the hearing, Nunes said that the hope is that the governor's funds are real for construction of infrastructure. "That is the biggest hope. I hope that the governor or the Legistalures puts something of this regard to vote to support it."

"People must want a new infrastructure. We want new dams, new canals and we need them today," he said.

The majority of California's infrastructure was constructed when the state's population was nearly 20 million and today it is made up of 37 million inhabitants.

Napolitano emphasized her frustration about the static situation: "We need to be more proactive and work more in collaboration we gave to go out there and listen to what is needed and do it without having to wait for a hearing."

Arias, who is also president of the Mendota school board, said that the effects caused by the drought are being felt deeply in education in places such as Mendota, Firebaugh and San Joaquín.

"If the students' parents don't have a job due to the lack of water, they cannot concentrate in school," he said.

Arias anticipates that if people don't find jobs they are going to leave somewhere else, "and with them their kids and we will have many classrooms without students."

"We hope that the people in charge of taking decisions take into consideration that those decisions, in part, affect people of all classes, people from our community."

"It is not a subject of whether farmers have water or not, it is a matter of whether the people that farmers employ have a job," he added.

The Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission gave food out last week to 250 families in Firebaugh last week..

"We are going to give away to about 500 families in Mendota this Friday and we are going to continue to give away in San Joaquín, Tranquility and in Huron," said Arias.

"The only hope that they give us is that they will come to Fresno to listen to our problems," nonetheless, any hope of solving the problems (about the water shortage) was ruled out, "because that is a problem we had been telling them about for many years, that it was going to happen and here it is and we know that the government's wheels turn very slowly."

Even with the uncertain future, Arias said that there is hope for the people in the last link of this crisis. "As long as we can and have money and have resources, we will give food away to all the people we can."

Costa pointed out that "the dark cloud of this water crisis has been exposed," and hopes Congress could be compelled "to act in favor of our long-term water necessities.

Send e-mail to: svelazquez@vidaenelvalle.com