Action on Water Coalition Urges Congress to Invest to Avoid Next Crisis

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For Immediate Release

Action on Water Coalition Urges Congress to Invest to Avoid Next Crisis

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Jul. 20 -/E-Wire/-- Leaders of California's high-tech and water industries today urged Senate support of comprehensive legislation that would avert an energy-like crisis in the state's water supply and delivery system.

"I'm here today to tell you that our region can continue to be a high-tech and manufacturing leader, but it cannot do that without a clean, stable water supply,' said Jim Cunneen, president and CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.

"While California's economic resources are enormous, the state's contribution to the national economy is increasingly held hostage by an unstable water supply,' warned Stephen K. Hall, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA).

The two spoke today at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's Water and Power Subcommittee in support of S 976, Senator Dianne Feinstein's bill to begin aggressively implementing the approved CALFED water plan for California. Feinstein's measure would, after a two-year lapse, renew federal funding of the comprehensive program to increase the supply and reliability of the state's water, improve water quality, and implement the state's most ambitious ecosystem restoration program.

Failure to act on the state's water problems now could have far-reaching impacts on California and the nation's economy, Cunneen and Hall both said.

"If we are perceived by others as a region that is water short (in addition to the high cost of living, traffic congestion and other issues), it will be difficult to be able to sustain the businesses that complement the high-tech and biotech industrial base that is so important to our nation and its standing in the global marketplace,' Cunneen pointed out.

Cunneen said that federal investments in the Bay-Delta must be increased and contrasted the nearly $2 billion commitment Californians made by passing Proposition 13 last year with the failure of the federal government to provide any funding in 2000. Water storage and conveyance elements must be included in the program for a "fair, balanced plan,' he said.

"CALFED still provides the best hope to ensure a reliable, clean water supply in an equitable fashion for the Silicon Valley and all of California,' Cunneen said.

Hall noted that the CALFED program would begin recovery of the one million acre-feet of water supply lost to cities and farms over the past decade due to increasing environmental uses, and would help keep pace with California's growing population.

"California will have 15 million more people in it before CALFED's plan is fully implemented,' Hall pointed out.

Federal investments in the CALFED program are "an area where the government can do its best work to prevent a water crisis, to restore the environment, and foster cooperative relationships,' he said. "An even cursory look at the economic stimulus resulting from public investment in water development easily shows that generated tax revenues far outstrip the initial federal investment,' Hall added.

Hall also highlighted the extensive ecosystem restoration program the federal money would support including improvements on the Pacific Flyway and for Pacific Ocean salmon that have national and international importance.

"Today, (this committee) can decide whether to prevent a crisis, or end up responding to it two or three years down the road,' Hall concluded.

Also today, the Action on Water Coalition, representing California business, labor and water interests, circulated a third letter to members of Congress, signed by 25 signatories, in support of federal legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Ken Calvert. This letter and the Hall and Cunneen testimony can be obtained at www.acwanet.com.

Association of California Water Agencies

http://www.acwanet.com

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