[Pages H156-H157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         ENDANGERED SPECIES IMPACT ON CALIFORNIA'S WATER SUPPLY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the Endangered 
Species Act. Indeed, it was designed back in the early seventies and 
passed with bipartisanship. It was signed by Richard Nixon to protect 
endangered species.
  What we see with its implementation in my home State of California 
and many other areas around this country, especially in the West, is 
significant misinterpretation of it.
  Indeed, it has been weaponized to stop many things that would be good 
for people, even for the environment. We are talking about forestry, 
forestry practices that would make our lands safer and less fire prone. 
We are talking about the water supply that would help valley farmers. 
It would help urban areas, and it certainly would help the situation in 
Los Angeles right now.
  What I have depicted here is a brush clearing project that was just 
above Pacific Palisades and other areas in L.A. that they actually had 
underway for a while until a national monument was declared above an 
area called Altadena. It stopped the ability to keep clearing brush. 
With national monuments, you are not allowed to go in there and do 
anything because it has to be left pristine and preserved. That ties in 
with the endangered species as well.
  We see the results. Instead of clearing this brush, we get results 
like this. This is happening right now in southern California, 
tragically, needlessly. We will continue to see this.
  I have seen it in my district. I have lost 3\1/2\ of my small towns 
in my district in the last 6 years, including the Paradise fire which 
took 85 lives, 90 percent of the town, Greenville, Canyondam, and a 
smaller town called Doyle that was burned on the east side. Again, the 
Endangered Species Act being manipulated and weaponized against doing 
the work we need to do is partly at fault.
  For example, when we talk about water in California, let's look at 
the delta smelt for a moment. The water supply we should be building in 
California is impeded because the water has to be shipped out to the 
Pacific Ocean, supposedly to help the delta smelt. The water increases 
have happened since 1992. The legislation here increased another 
800,000 acre-feet per year. Then it is built up from there to, 
hopefully, or somehow help the delta smelt.
  This is Shasta Dam in northern California which we are trying to get 
filled right now but is going to be less useful for people as more of 
this water is dumped out to the delta.
  What does that mean for southern California? Well, for example, let's 
take a look at this. This is the Santa Ynez Reservoir which currently 
is empty, supposedly for rehab and some maintenance. This is what it is 
supposed to look like full. That is what it looks like right now. It 
seems people in southern California who are supposed to be in charge 
didn't even know it was empty. This holds approximately 40 acre-feet 
when it is full, which is 117 million gallons.
  When full, the Shasta Dam here holds 4\1/2\ acre-feet. We have been 
discussing a raise of Shasta Dam. It would be easy to raise it 18 feet. 
That would cause about 630,000 more acre-feet to be available to be 
stored in California.
  With that, can you imagine what 600,000 acre-feet could do to help? 
It could fill this in minutes with the amount of water going out to the 
Pacific Ocean. The Endangered Species Act is being used as a weapon 
against raising an existing dam that was built in the thirties there 
that would do that. They will find a species of the week to do that. In 
this case I believe it is a salamander.

  Let's go back in time a little bit. You have probably heard of the 
Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tellico Dam. That project was an 
idea that came about in the late sixties, and the construction was 
going to happen pretty soon after that. What they did is some 
biologists, I think from the University of Tennessee, were out on a 
hike and discovered, he thought, she thought, whoever it was, that 
there was something called a snail darter in the river there.
  Starting in about 1973, or soon after the ESA was put in place, it 
was listed in 1975 as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, 
leading to a legal battle that took a long time and was finally 
settled. It went to the Supreme Court and was finally settled by 
legislation passed in Congress in 1979, which exempted the Tellico Dam 
from the ESA protections and allowed the giant project. It was going to 
make so much hydroelectric power, store water, and be available for 
agriculture and people. They actually got it done.
  Instead, the biologists took this so-called snail darter and moved 
populations to other rivers in the area. The species was then 
reclassified downward from endangered to threatened in 1984. Finally, 
in 2022, it was removed from the list.
  Interestingly, when we talk about the weaponization of ESA, a study 
that was just released revealed that the snail darter isn't an actual 
distinct

[[Page H157]]

species but is actually just another population of one called the 
stargazing darter. This raises concern about a specie's identification 
when really what it is being used for is a weapon.
  This is what the snail darter actually looks like because it doesn't 
exist as its own.
  This is what they are doing in southern California. I just showed you 
the picture of the fires. There is a project near Pacific Palisades 
that was going to remove some vulnerable power pole lines that were 
made of wood and some lower hanging wires and other equipment with some 
stronger, more fire-resistant ones. They started on the project, but 
they discovered a species of vetch which is grown as a crop in many 
other areas, as a cover crop or what have you. They discovered one 
called, I think, Braunton's milkvetch. We grow cow vetch all the time 
in other areas. I have another picture in another speech.
  When placed side by side, they are the same picture. These are 
weaponized to stop a project that could have been helpful in keeping 
Pacific Palisades from burning due to downed power lines. It probably 
wouldn't have been the key piece, but that has certainly happened in 
plenty of other areas around the State where downed power lines, due to 
the wind or branches and stuff blowing into them, have caused several 
fires, including the Camp fire in Paradise I mentioned that killed 85 
people, and started a fire called the Dixie fire which burned a million 
acres.
  Frequently, we have in northern California what we call public safety 
power shutoffs where people just have their power shut off because the 
wind might blow hard enough to blow branches into power lines 
somewhere. We sit without power like a Third World country.
  This all traces back to the inability to do the forestry management 
where I was talking about water storage and to have a water supply for 
southern California.
  What it boils down to is we need the leadership like President Trump 
is going to provide and what Gavin Newsom has been stopping as far as 
helping us with water storage and helping us get the water to the 
farmers and urban areas as needed.

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