171 



Testimony of Thomas J. Graff 

 Senior Attorney, Environmental Defense Fund 



on H.R. 1906, 

 The Central Valley Project Reform Act of 1995 



before the 



United States House of Representatives 



Committee on Resources 



Subcommittee on Water and Power Resources 



The Honorable John Doolittle, Chairman 



Washington, D.C. 

 July 20, 1995 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am Thomas J. Graff, Senior Attorney of the 

 Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). I very much appreciate your invitation to testify here today. My 

 principal purpose in testifying is to express EDF's strong opposition to H.R. 1906. As the critique 

 attached to this testimony sets forth, our objections to H.R. 1906 go to the very heart of the bill. We 

 simply do not believe any bill amending die Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) is 

 appropriate at this time and we have very specific problems with the bill that has been introduced. 



This is my first opportunity to appear before tliis subcommittee in the 104th Congress which, as you 

 know much better than 1, has an unusually large number of new members and a new majority party. 

 For these reasons, before I begin a specific discussion of the CVPIA and H.R. 1906, 1 hope you will 

 rind it useful to you for me to relate a bit of EDF's and my own history, witli respect to water 

 resources policy, especially as it affects the Central Valley Project (CVP) and more specifically the 

 CVPIA. 



I helped open EDF's West Coast office in August, 1971 and within a year was actively involved in 

 several major actions involving two large Congressionally-authorized additions to the CVP, the New 

 Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River and the Auburn-Folsom South project on the American River. 

 These actions (litigation and related administrative proceedings) dominated EDF's and my own 

 activities respecting the CVP for much of the 1970s. As many of the subcommittee members may 

 know, our activities did not prevent the construction of New Melones, although they did affect its 

 operating regime. However, along with many other factors, notably including an earthquake (possibly 



