Despite the recent storms, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is expected to announce a water allocation that is worse than last year's meager 10 percent for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley.
For those skeptics who question whether or not we have a "regulatory drought," there is no further evidence needed: the Endangered Species Act is running our state's water system -- a system that once was the pride of the West -- and causing hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to be fallowed, while sending thousands of farmworkers to food lines.
Some of our smaller farm-dependent communities on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley are experiencing 40 percent unemployment. These high unemployment numbers will ripple through the Valley if farmers don't have water to grow their crops.
Congress must address this situation now by including legislative help in the upcoming jobs bill. I am working with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jim Costa on an emergency temporary water supply amendment, which Feinstein plans on introducing in to the Senate's jobs bill.
This amendment will provide for an emergency stop gap water allocation of 40 percent for the next two years.
With the current wet conditions, there is clearly enough water in the system for farms and fish, as well as for municipal and industrial uses. This is the right thing to do for our farms, farmworkers and the state's economy.
I have long called for addressing the "regulatory drought" by waiving the Endangered Species Act, forcing federal agencies to redo the regulations after taking into account all of the factors affecting the listed species in the delta and having the National Academies of Sciences review the science of these regulations.
Despite the pumping restrictions for agricultural water, the endangered species in the delta remain at an all time low: clearly there are other factors at play in the decline of the fish.
Among those "stressors" are urban pesticide run-off, wastewater discharges and predation by non-native species, as well as nearby oil refineries and power plants. Thankfully, the NAS is reviewing these issues, but they are not expected to release their report for another 18 months.
The amendment we are proposing is an emergency stop-gap measure that will get us through the next two years until NAS releases its report and we have more information to go forward.
In the meantime, it is also crucial that California voters support investment in our water infrastructure by supporting the water bond on the November ballot. It is equally important that the federal government assist the state of California with funding for new storage projects and improved conveyance systems.
Just this week, we saw clear evidence of the need for this amendment when the federal water agencies announced that they would be ordering further restrictions on pumping because four delta smelt were killed at the pumps.
These same agencies have already killed more than 260 delta smelt in their fish surveys this year. This is nonsense.
During a recent hearing on this issue, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger stated that it appeared that the federal agencies were not acting in good faith. However, he said, his hands were tied because of the Endangered Species Act.
Even worse, the agencies ordered these restrictions despite the court's order the week before to turn on the pumps for a 14-day period.
Although the previous order was related to pumping restrictions to protect salmon, the judge made it clear that there was plenty of water in the system and that the loss in pumping caused by federal regulations exacerbates the current catastrophic situation faced by Valley farmers.
Judge Wanger further stated that under current rain and weather conditions, lifting the restrictions on pumping would have a minimal impact on the salmon, while failing to ease restrictions could cause "substantial and irreparable" harm to farmers.
This water supply crisis should be treated with as much vigilance as a natural disaster.
Many of us in the Congress have warned the Obama administration, and the Bush administration before, that these regulations would lead to a water supply crisis.
Although the Obama administration has taken some action on water transfers and allocated funds for drought relief projects, urban areas have received the vast majority of these funds.
The administration has also claimed credit for getting more water to the Westside recently, but these actions simply reaffirm existing guidelines and have not resulted in any additional water supplies.
While pursuing long-term water storage and conveyance projects, we have also identified projects and actions to address this crisis in the short term.
In fact, it is imperative that we pursue any and all actions that will make a difference, including removing impediments to water transfers, increasing the federal cost share for smaller water supply projects, and funding projects like the North Valley Regional Water Recycling Project and the Patterson Irrigation Pipeline Project.
These two projects alone could result in as much as 140,000 acre-feet of water being made available to the most impacted areas.
It is abundantly clear that this water crisis will not magically end, even if California experiences successive wet years. Congress needs to approve the emergency temporary water supply amendment in the jobs bill for our farms, our farmworkers and our economy.
Rep. Dennis Cardoza is a Democrat respresenting the 18th congressional district.
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