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WINN Act to bring relief to California agriculture

A California ag leader says the new Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act – signed into law by President Obama last Friday – will bring drought relief to areas of that state.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau, says the provisions of the Endangered Species Act kept water from being moved to critical areas.

“We had a lot of water go out under the Golden Gate Bridge that should have been able to be pumped into San Luis Reservoir and then sent into the Central Valley and southern California areas. But because of the inflexibility of the biological opinions, which were based on the Endangered Species Act, we couldn’t take advantage of that water. This bill will allow some flexibility there,” says Wenger.

Wenger tells Brownfield the Endangered Species Act allowed biologists to use just their intuition to determine if fish would be harmed by water infrastructure improvements.

“They didn’t have to have any scientific metrics, they didn’t have to go out and do sampling, they didn’t have to KNOW if fish were being harmed. All they had to rely on was their intuition. So this bill says no, you CANNOT just use your intuition, you got to go out and check for fish,” says Wenger.

Wenger says the act also provides for water storage facilities to help store and move water to the Central Valley and southern regions still impacted by the drought – now in its 6th year.

Audio: Paul Wenger, President, California Farm Bureau

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