71 



kersfield. Water conservation is not something new to our area, 

 and then to have some onerous provisions in the criteria foisted 

 upon us was very distasteful. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. What has been your experience with water 

 transfers? Mr. Nelson testified these have been inhibited since the 

 CVPIA took effect. Have you found that to be the case? 



Mr. Moss. Relative to transfers within Friant, they have oc- 

 curred fairly easily and readily. What raised the original concern 

 was in the development of the guidelines for water transfers that 

 the Bureau was developing as part of the CVPIA. They came out 

 in the determination of those guidelines that all transfers would 

 have to be subject to the provisions in the CVPIA. 



Clearly, that wasn't what we believed Congress intended. We 

 thought Congress wanted to be additive to the capabilities of trans- 

 ferring water. Well, the Bureau came down with the solicitor's 

 opinion that said, no, the existing ability to transfer water expires 

 with the expiration of the existing contracts. Thus, all transfers are 

 going to have to be run through the CVPIA process. We think 

 clearly that is not a workable situation on the long-term. 



The fact that that process hasn't caught up yet with our trans- 

 fers at Friant I have trouble explaining. But the fact is that if that 

 process which they believe mandated by law were to come into 

 place, it would make transfers at Friant unworkable. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Well, Mr. Miller is not a witness, but he is one 

 of the authors. Maybe he will comment upon that. I wouldn't want 

 to speculate as to what his intent was, but it does seem as though 

 that is a strange result — apparently though the result of the Bu- 

 reau's own interpretation of it. 



Do you believe the 800,000 acre foot reservation for environ- 

 mental purposes is a good thing under the CVPIA? 



Mr. Moss. Yes. We continue to support the 800,000 acre foot res- 

 ervation as is currently being interpreted under the Bay-Delta Ac- 

 cord. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Is certainty important to your customers in 

 terms of their being able to run their businesses and meet their ob- 

 ligations? 



Mr. Moss. Very much so. Again, what we are talking about prin- 

 cipally in the Friant Division is plantings of permanent plantings. 

 You don't have an option from one year to the next as to whether 

 or not you are going to have water for your trees, and they die in 

 one year, and you are talking about replantings and regeneration 

 of fruit that would probably take on the order of eight to ten years 

 before you are back in full production. You just can't work with 

 that kind of uncertainty. 



Additionally, there is a lot of infrastructure, if you will, needed 

 to grow permanent plantings from the irrigation systems and the 

 trellises all the way up to the packing houses and the like that are 

 needed. You don't do that kind of construction, that kind of invest- 

 ment without having long-term certainty that you are going to 

 have a water supply. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Thank you. I would suggest we go vote — to re- 

 cess and then come back and resume the questioning. 



[Recess.] 



