Nearly 100 farmers, elected officials, and representatives of federal agencies and irrigation districts packed Turlock’s War Memorial Building on Thursday for a water and agriculture forum hosted by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-El Dorado Hills).

McClintock led a panel of speakers that included Aubrey Bettencourt, Commission of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Adam Nickels, Region 10 director of the USBR, Donnie Ratcliff, acting assistant regional director for the Pacific Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bryan Agnuiano, state director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Connie Conway, state executive director of the Farm Service Agency of the USDA, and Michael Mayfield, Region 9 agricultural advisor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Attendees asked questions, shared stories, offered input, with some even thanking McClintock and other panelists for their efforts in attempting to calm the regulatory headwinds that their various projects face.

“We live in a water rich region,” said McClintock, who represents the 5th Congressional District. “It’s true we have droughts from time to time, but droughts are nature’s fault; water shortages are our fault. Water shortages are a choice we made a generation ago when we passed laws to make construction of new dams and reservoirs endlessly time consuming and inordinately cost-prohibitive.”

McClintock, who is seeking his 10th term in Washington this fall against Democratic challenger Michael Masuda, pointed out that the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, with an elevation of 600 feet, was originally planned to be about 800 feet. The Trump administration announced in March that it will that it will put $40 million toward efforts to raise the dam by 18.5 feet, which would result in 14 percent increased water storage – about 635,000-acre feet, though opponents claim the expansion could swamp sacred sites and harm portions of the river.

“We’ve talked about all kinds of big ideas that California water can bring to the table,” said Nickels. “And (state Senate Bill) 72 is out there coming up with a list of really big ideas. But that’s the easy part of the job, coming up with the list. It’s the implementation that the hard part. If we can tackle financing and regulatory implementation and reform, we can do big things here in California. For us to even talking about the Shasta Dam raise is a big deal. We need to start tackling those hard things first.”

SB 72, signed into law last year, transforms California water management so that instead of managing for scarcity, the state will work toward water supply targets that are achievable by specific dates.

McClintock said he was happy with the results of the forum.

“I thought it was a huge success,” said McClintock, who has long been critical of state water policy. “The whole purpose was to provide two-way communication between the farmers and the federal officials responsible for water and agricultural policy in this region so that they can develop the connections to have their concerns heard directly by the decision makers.”

Those sentiments were echoed by other local stakeholders in attendance.

• “Our district is the oldest in the state as far as water utilities go, and all of our infrastructure – whether conveyance or storage – was built 50 to 140 years ago. And Congressman McClintock made that point: we know how to do it, because we did it. But now we’re in a situation where it doesn’t seem like we can do it anymore. TID is ready to make bold decisions. We’re pursuing more water rights on the Tuolumne River, and we have projects that we’re ready to build. So, we need to figure out how to get it done again.” — Brad Koehn, TID general manager.
• We need to move these water projects forward and bringing our public agencies into Turlock was phenomenal.” – Becky Hackler Arellano, Turlock Irrigation District, Board of Trustees (Division 4)
• “We are consistently just like all the other counties and areas that are dealing with water issues. We’re all the same and are dealing with the same issues, but to different degrees. It was good that the Congressman brought these people here.” – Buck Condit, Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors (District 1).
• “The Congressman did a great job bringing the agencies down here to a local level, which is really important, because water issues affect the entire economy, and it’s a local, state, and federal issue. Everybody in California knows how necessary water is. It’s not a partisan issue. It affects everyone in this state.” – State senate (District 4) candidate Alexandra Duarte.