LaMalfa focused on water as a commodity

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) failed to disclose important facts about the “House drought relief legislation” (E-R, Dec. 23). The benefits he touted for “California as a whole and the north state specifically” are really for a tiny number of river water districts and not “residents” or groundwater-dependent farms. The “north state residents” that LaMalfa asserted had received no water in 2014 were actually farms, not homes.

While we feel for neighbors who have taken risks planting permanent crops without a reliable water source, ultimately, business decisions that backfire must be faced. Unfortunately, a major beneficiary of LaMalfa’s bill is Westlands Water District in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley, hardly a neighbor. Westlands is the poster child for junior water claimants that expect publicly subsidized north state water for private profit — in a desert, no less.

LaMalfa also declared that “it increases the overall (water) supply,” but impartial review of HR 5781 found that, according to Congressional Research Service, “there are no estimates of how much more water might be gained if the bills were passed, nor is there information on how much might be made unavailable to varied interests compared with the status quo.”

Regarding so-called protection of “north state water rights,” HR 5781 is actually protective of the tiny number of senior, river water districts, many who regularly sell water to south-state interests. Instead of providing leadership that helps California and his district face hydrologic reality, LaMalfa remains entrenched in water politics that benefits a narrow group of agricultural interests.

Additional analysis at www.aqualliance.net.

— Barbara Vlamis, Chico