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STATEMENT OF SENATOR BILL BRADLEY 



BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER AND POWER RESOURCES 



HOUSE COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES 



JULY 20, 1995 



Mr. Chairman, thank you for giving me the opportunity to 

 testify today on the Central Valley Project Improvement Act 

 (CVPIA) and your efforts to amend it with your own bill, H.R. 

 1906. As one of the authors of this landmark act, I retain a 

 deep interest in all bills and regulations which affect its 

 fortunes . 



The CVPIA was enacted to modernize the Central Valley 

 Project and produce a balanced project which yields benefits for 

 urban, environmental. Native American, state and Federal 

 governments and commercial and sport fishing interests as well as 

 for irrigated agriculture. But H.R. 1906 threatens to upset that 

 careful balance by tilting the scales in favor of agriculture and 

 reopening hostilities in California's long-standing water wars. 



Before passage of the CVPIA in 1992, the Central Valley 

 Project was in crisis. It was a relic of an earlier era which 

 emphasized delivery of irrigation water at the expense of other 

 interests such as the water needs of fish and wildlife and urban 

 dwellers. The CVPIA helped resolve the crisis with a ground- 

 breaking approach to irrigation projects featuring water 

 conservation, voluntary water transfers to non-agricultural 

 users, and water for wildlife and fish. At the same time, the 

 CVPIA guaranteed a majority of the Project's water for irrigated 

 agriculture under twenty- five year contracts and at subsidized 

 rates . 



Mr. Chairman, I see no reason for changes in the CVPIA. The 



