Obama comes to California bringing federal drought aid as state officials outline the actions to address the drought

Recent storms in Northern California, while welcome, have done little to improve the state’s unprecedented dry conditions.  As the impacts of the slow moving crisis are felt, from the dried riverbeds and shrinking reservoirs to the parched landscape and the brown fields going unplanted, state and federal resources are starting to flow where the water’s not.

Aboard Marine One, President Barack Obama looks out over the central valley of California with Rep. Jim Costa and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as they fly to an event in Firebaugh, Calif., Feb. 14, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Aboard Marine One, President Barack Obama looks out over the central valley of California with Rep. Jim Costa and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as they fly to an event in Firebaugh, Calif., Feb. 14, 2014.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

“What happens here matters to every working American, right down to the cost of food that you put on your table,” President Obama told the nation from a fallowed farm field in Los Banos.  He was here to announce over $183 million in federal drought aid for farmers, farmworkers, and communities throughout the state and the west, including $100 million in livestock disaster assistance, $15 million in targeted conservation assistance, and increased funding for food banks, emergency water assistance grants, and watershed protection programs.

The recent legislation introduced by Senators Feinstein and Boxer will also help, said Obama, and he urged Congress to take action to resolve competing legislation soon.

However, an even longer-term solution is needed, he pointed out.  “We have to be clear:  A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they’re going to be harsher,” said Obama.  “Droughts have obviously been a part of life out here in the West since before any of us were around and water politics in California have always been complicated, but scientific evidence shows that a changing climate is going to make them more intense.”

Obama emphasized that we have to take steps to combat carbon pollution, but even so, carbon has been building up in the atmosphere for decades and consequently warming will continue for a long time to come.  “So we’re going to have to stop looking at these disasters as something to wait for; we’ve got to start looking at these disasters as something to prepare for, to anticipate, to start building new infrastructure, to start having new plans, to recalibrate the baseline that we’re working off of,” he said.  “And everybody, from farmers to industry to residential areas, to the north of California and the south of California and everyplace in between, as well as the entire Western region are going to have to start rethinking how we approach water for decades to come.”  He noted that the budget he will send to Congress next month will include $1 billion in new funding for new technologies to help communities prepare for a changing climate and to set up incentives to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure.

Back in Sacramento at a drought workshop convened by the ACWA, the California Farm Bureau Federation and others, members of the Governor’s Interagency Task Force updated attendees on the state’s actions to address the impacts.

The drought is a matter of urgency requiring coordination between a myriad of agencies at the federal and state level, and at different levels,  California’s Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird said. “We can’t make it rain, but we’re sending water to where it’s needed the most, saving what we have for later, and asking all Californians to conserve,” he said.

Drought panel 2

The Governor’s Interagency Task Force addresses ACWA’s Drought Workshop on Friday
Photo credit: Office of Emergency Services

Agencies are coordinating to help in many different ways, he said, pointing out that just recently, many agencies came together to help the City of Willits, one of a number of the state’s communities that are facing a drinking water shortage.  “This week the Administration announced a joint effort to help them.  Funding will be provided from the California Department of Public Health’s Drinking Water Program, CalFire crews made up of low-level corrections inmates are laying pipeline to connect Willits to more stable water supplies, and the USDA has encouraged Willits to apply for a $500,000 grant from the Rural Development Agency to help with their drinking water system,” Laird said, noting this is just one example of how everyone is working together to solve problems.

Task force officials will be meeting with local government leaders around the state in the coming months to make sure they are getting the resources they need and to hear from them directly as to what’s going on in their communities with regard to the drought, Laird said.  There will be meetings statewide in the coming weeks and months to make sure that all federal, state and local leaders are coordinating and do everything we can get through this extreme drought, he said.

“We are in truly an unprecedented circumstance of drought,” said Director of the Office of Emergency Services Mark Ghilarducci.  “We need to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”  Drought is a crisis that continues to evolve, and we need to prepare for the summer months and the increased threat of fire and communities running out of water as well as the needs of our most vulnerable populations, Ghilarducci said.

Drought Mark Ghilarducci

Director of Office of Emergency Services John Ghirladucci addresses the attendees.
Photo credit: Office of Emergency Services

“So, we need your help,” said Mr. Ghilarducci.  “I ask that you convene working groups or task forces at the local level.  Please tie in with your emergency management system and work that back up through the standardized emergency management system so that we can collect the data and work with you.  We want to be as proactive as possible but this is a public/private/individual solution effort.  It’s not just a one-way street.  It’s not just a government solution.”

The State Water Board is working in many ways to assist, including using the flexibility inherent in the traditional regulatory tools to get through this extraordinary period, Felicia Marcus, Chair of the State Water Board, told the crowd.  She said that the Executive Director of the State Water Board issued a temporary urgency order allowing for the conservation of the remaining water in storage for essential public health and safety as well as for salinity control through the coming months.  “That meant cutting back on what would be regular outflows for fish, cutting back what would be regular salinity numbers set for normal conditions, allowing for real-time operation of the Delta Cross Channel gate, and sort of heroic and really important real-time collaboration with the federal and state governments, both operations and fish agencies, to figure out how to use real-time daily changes, rather than seasonal changes, to operate the system both to protect fish and to protect salinity in the Delta,” said Ms. Marcus.  “This allowed us to cut back on outflows and limit the export pumps to essential public health and safety.”

The State Water Board will be fulfilling their obligation to implement the water rights system that is based on seniority, Marcus said.  “We will be issuing curtailment notices.  The law in California, both in statue and in case law, gives priority to senior water rights holders and cuts off junior water rights holders progressively until the most senior water rights holders needs are met.   A notice that they would be going out went out a few weeks ago.”

Marcus also noted that the State Water Board is also working closely with the Resources Agency and the federal agencies to figure out how to expedite transfers to the extent that transfers are possible during this period, as well as working to find attractive term financing and other grant funding pots to accelerate recycling, conservation, and other integrated water management projects.

But in the end, it’s all of us pulling together that will make the difference, officials stressed.  “The old divides, whether it’s farmers versus fish, north versus south, don’t and shouldn’t apply anymore.  We just simply don’t have much water.  This drought affects everyone and we have to come together as Californians to get through it,” said John Laird.  “We are all in this together.”

Marcus echoed Laird’s remarks.  “We really are going to have to collaborate our way through this one as never before with intelligence and compassion, not just for the people we serve, but for each other as folks who are trying to figure out how to do this as best we can in a crisis.”

Written by: Chris “Maven” Austin