THE CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT 

 IMPROVEMENT ACT 



THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1995 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Water and Power Resources, 



Committee on Resources, 



Washington, DC. 

 The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:11 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. John Doolittle (chair- 

 man of the subcommittee) presiding. 



STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN DOOLITTLE, A U.S. REPRESENTA- 

 TIVE FROM CALIFORNIA; AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTE 

 ON WATER AND POWER RESOURCES 



Mr. Doolittle. The Subcommittee on Water and Power Re- 

 sources will come to order. The subcommittee is meeting today to 

 hear testimony on H.R. 1906, the Central Valley Project Reform 

 Act of 1995. Under Rule 6(f) of the Committee Rules, any oral 

 opening statements at hearings are limited to the Chairman and 

 the ranking minority member. This will allow us to hear from our 

 witnesses sooner and to help members keep to their schedules. 

 Therefore, if other members have statements, they can be included 

 in the hearing record. 



The Central Valley Project is a major Federal water project en- 

 compassing two of California's major watersheds, the Sacramento 

 River to the north and the San Joaquin River to the south. It is 

 a system of 20 dams and reservoirs with a total storage capacity 

 of over 12 million acre feet. It provides irrigation to approximately 

 3 million acres of farmland. The CVP provides municipal and in- 

 dustrial water to more than 2 million Califomians. The CVP also 

 has the capacity to produce 2,000 megawatts of hydroelectricity. 



In 1992, Congress passed the Central Valley Project Improve- 

 ment Act, CVPIA. Indeed, Senator Bradley, Mr. Miller, Mr. Beard, 

 Mr. Graff, all of whom we will hear from today, were major pro- 

 ponents in the adoption of the CVPIA. The stated intent of the Act 

 was to improve the way water was managed in California. Experi- 

 ence has shown that some of the provisions worked; others did not. 



H.R. 1906 is needed to fix the provisions that aren't working. The 

 testimony at our April 18 hearing in Sacramento demonstrated the 

 need for change. The testimony we hear today will further high- 

 light critical areas where reforms are needed. We have heard from 

 virtually every group affected by the CVPIA that it is not working. 

 The only question is how to fix it? 



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