▶ 0:06:45The hearing will come to order. Good I'd like to welcome everyone to today's Energy and Water Member Day hearing. Today, our fellow members will have the opportunity to testify on issues under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee that are important to them. Each witness will have five minutes to present their testimony. Members of the subcommittee will then have the opportunity to ask questions if they'd like to do so.
▶ 0:07:13I know everyone has busy schedules today, so I will forego any extended remarks. I look forward to learning more from our colleagues on their priorities for the fiscal 26 energy and water bill. At this time, I'd like to recognize my friend, Miss Captor, for any opening remarks she'd like to make. Miss Captor. Thank you, uh, Chairman Fleshman, and, uh, thank you to our colleagues who come before us today.
▶ 0:07:40We appreciate very much, uh, the time you've taken to be here and advocate for your communities, and I look forward to hearing your priorities, learning more about your part of the country, uh, including federal programs of importance to you and your district. I yield back. I'd like to thank the ranking member. We will now turn to our witnesses. First up, I'd like to welcome Congressman Randy Weber from the state of Texas. Mr.
▶ 0:08:09Weber, you're recognized for five minutes, sir. Uh, thank you. Are we on? We are on. Okay. Well, good morning, Mr. Chairman, ranking member capture and the ranking member Delaro and Cole and Chairman Cole who I don't see, but I am Randy Weber. I have the great honor of representing Texas 14th district which is the Gulf Coast of Dist Texas starting at the Louisiana line and going down the curve of Texas. Let me tell you, my district is not just a dot on the map, nor is it just a curve.
▶ 0:08:38It is the beating heart of American energy, trade, and security. Why do I say that? Texas 14 is home to some of the largest refineries in the nation. We export American produced LG through three major terminals. We operate the most strategic military port in the country. We move more military personnel and equipment out of the country than any other port in the United States. We operate on every day our seven ports operates pipelines and ship channels.
▶ 0:09:07We keep the American economy running and keep our military supplied and keep our military moving quite frankly. But here's the hard truth. If we don't invest in the deepening and strengthening of these waterways, if we let them degrade, they silt in as most of y'all will know, then what's the point of all this energy production? Because we can't move that out. What good is having oil and gas?
▶ 0:09:32If we can't move it out safely and efficiently, what good is an American energy dominance if the infrastructure support is crumbling? We fall we will fall woefully behind. The Sabine Nature's Waterway is the longest waterway in the Gulf Coast, second only to the Mississippi River. Okay. It is the most critical waterway, one of the most critical waterway systems in our country. The impact of the Sabine Nation waterway is undeniable.
▶ 0:09:58The waterway moves over, check this out, 194 million tons of cargo every single year. And it is the largest crude oil and LNG exporter in the nation. The waterway has not undergone any improvements in over 5050 years.
▶ 0:10:17And improving this waterway by deepening the channel from 40 ft to 48 ft will allow larger ships to come up into the channel and get the cargo a lot more quicker and a lot more efficiently. Unleashing the power of American energy by enabling future growth and and increases in shipping volumes, which helps with trade.
▶ 0:10:37By the way, the port of Galveston, one of my other ports, operating since 1825, believe it or not, it was formed by the Mexican government before Texas won its independence in 30 1836, is a vital commercial hub in my district, handling both cargo, not only cargo, energy, but cruise traffic, cruise terminals. We have a lot of cruises out of Galveston.
▶ 0:11:00Each year, Galvestonport moves over 4 million tons of cargo and welcomes over 1 million cruise passengers every year. To stay competitive and accommodate modern fleets, channel dredging and harbor improvements are absolutely essential. Not to mention, we also have what's called coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Project, which is necessary for the Gulf Coast because we have so many hurricanes. We're prone to so many hurricanes.
▶ 0:11:28That project is to reduce the risk for storm surge for the millions of folks and the energy businesses who live on the coast and work are very critical industries that keep the US up and running. The Texas legislature, y'all, understands that investing in our future is in that infrastructure is investing in our future.
▶ 0:11:49That's why the state of Texas has stepped up with funding for the Brazes River floodgates, which are critical structures on the Gulf intra coastal waterway that has been in place since the 1940s. 1940s, and they're long overdue for modernization. Now, it's time for the federal government to do its part by allowing the US Army Corps of Engineers to accept the funds that Texas has already committed. And finally, we must stay ahead in small modular nuclear technology.
▶ 0:12:20Southeast Texas is ready to lead, but we need continued support to ensure the US remains on the at the forefront, not playing catch-up to China or Russia. So to recap, let me say this. We must fully fund the SE sub nation's waterway channel improvement project. We must deepen the Galveston ship channel. We must advance the coastal Texas barrier protection and restoration project and we must upgrade the Brazes river floodgates.
▶ 0:12:48And yes, we must continue to support de nuclear demonstration projects as part of the all of the above strategy uh to meet rising global demand. So to my esteemed colleagues, thank you for having me here today. Let's talk not talk about energy dominance and then fail to fund the very arteries that make it possible. Let me reiterate.
▶ 0:13:11If we're going to talk about we need to be energy dominant and the leader in the world, let's not fail to fund the very arteries that make it possible. Let's back up our principles with action. Y'all have the capability and the power to do that. I respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of these vital projects.
▶ 0:13:30And with that, I will yield back or welcome any I thank the gentleman, my friend from Texas for an excellent presentation. Uh, I have no questions at this time. Uh, Miss Captor. Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to take the time because I'm interested in this.
▶ 0:13:50I never been to Galveastston or your part of Texas, uh, Congressman Weber, but they provided us with a little map here and, um, I wish it were larger, but um, uh, tell us a little bit more about your district.
▶ 0:14:04Um and uh the obviously the energy economy is the leading yes economic activity of your district and NASA just for information uh actually the Johnson Space Center was in Dr. Brian Babin's district half a mile north of mine. 7500 people who either work for NASA and or its subcontractors live in my district.
▶ 0:14:32So, not only is energy very, very, very huge, so is space. It's an extremely u what should I say long district. Um, Congresswoman Cap, I don't know how long yours is, but mine's 160 miles from the Louisiana border down to the southwest end. So, the gasoline, the oil companies love me because we we traverse that on every weekend. All right. Well, that is a long district. And um uh I wanted to just shift over a little bit if I could.
▶ 0:15:02LNG um I look at your region and I think about all the storms that have occurred in Texas. Uh has your district been a victim of uh the hurricanes and the changing climate at all? I have been here. I have the gray hair to prove it. I was eight years old in 1961 when Hurricane Carla hit the Texas Gulf Coast. And I've been through every single hurricane since that time.
▶ 0:15:32And believe it or not, not only do we have hurricanes, but we also have a Galveistston Island for the first time in in my life. I'm 71 years old. I've lived in a 20-mi radius. Had 16 degrees on the island last winter. Wintertorm Yuri, if you remember from February of 2021, we had 18 degrees. So, we've had a lot of weather patterns change and it's a huge district and we see a lot of weather.
▶ 0:15:58And do you see those changing uh weather patterns having an impact on access or egress from your ports? Well, uh yes, they do. Of course, uh when things are cold, for example, and I know y'all live up north, I'm not sure about Tennessee. Um, I think that y'all's y'all's You can tell I'm from Texas, y'all. Um, I think y'all's buildings are built to withstand very cold temperatures. Ours are built more to stand high, you know, warm temperatures and hurricane, too.
▶ 0:16:27But a lot of things happen. Traffics get snarled. I the roads get icy. Pipes break. So, when you have really cold winters, it'll affect the the weather the people in our district. And when you have a hurricane approaching and the news is saying, "Y'all need to evacuate." Unfortunately, and this is true in just about every district I see on TV, I say people, "Y'all need to evacuate." People are quite slow to evacuate. So, the roads get clogged very easily. So, weather definitely affects us.
▶ 0:16:55And what about coastal erosion in your region? Coastal erosion is a is something that we deal with. But the USACE, United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Galveston Flood Control District, we all we have an agreement with what they do is they renourish the beach sands.
▶ 0:17:13So when they do projects and when they do dredge and quite frankly that's a great question because when they do dredge out these long 40some mile channels, then they can actually renourish the beef the beach with that sand that they took from dredging. and some of our coasts, we've had real real challenges with coastal erosion. Yes, ma'am. Um of a of a major proportion. So, I was just curious about your region. Final question. Um it is my I'm one of the members that cares about nuclear waste.
▶ 0:17:42I know our chairman does too. And um do you having thought about nuclear power um do you have suggestions? I think I read I believe that Texas has disallowed uh storage of nuclear waste. Um have you ever heard anybody in Texas who's interested in this challenge? Well, yes, I have. Um some of you probably won't know, but I spent four years uh in the Texas legislature uh before I got demoted to Congress.
▶ 0:18:12And uh we actually had waste control specialties out in Andrews County for West Texas, which they wanted that facility. The community wanted it. The Chamber of Commerce wanted it. The city of fathers wanted it. At some point in time, they changed their mind. They said they didn't want it anymore. So, there's been that cont I've actually been there and visited with my own eyes in 2010, I think it was.
▶ 0:18:37Very fus futuristic, huge concrete barriers, huge rooms and stuff like that. So, they can they can come on in, Mr. Chair, Mr. Costa. And so, um, we've had that discussion, uh, and Chairman Flashman knows this that we have a nuclear event every month we're in session about one a month over at the Capitol Hill Club, uh, where we have Republicans and Democrats come talk to members, uh, come talk to businesses.
▶ 0:19:07We've had people from the EPA, we've had people from the state, retired people from State Department, we've had people from industries that come. It's nonattributal. We don't go we don't let all this stuff out. This is there's no sales going on. Nobody's trying to sell us into a product or something like that. We're talking about all the pathways and all the things that are growing. In other words, we're learning that there's more and more, for example, how France reproduces energ. We could do the same thing. We have that discussion every month.
▶ 0:19:36I would invite all of and I know Chuck knows this. He's one that really got me involved. He's good at it, too, by the way. Yes, he is. But I would invite you all to come because it's really fascinating when you listen to it. And I forgot to say this when I was in the Texas legislature for four years. I had a nuclear project in my district, South Texas Nuclear Project down in Madagorta County. I've been there in 2010 and watched them change out spent fuel rods with my own eyes. It's fascinating. They can do it cleanly.
▶ 0:20:06They can do it Well, that I I got to make it over to the Capitol Hill Club. Mr. chairman, you got to help us. You're always welcome. And many of your colleagues, uh, Madame Ranking member, come over and and Mr. Weber is absolutely right. They're not only very convivial discussions, very substantive, and help us do our work. And uh, you are always welcome. I know Mr. Simpson has joined some of those, but Mr. Weber is there just about uh, every month.
▶ 0:20:35In fact, there's one I think tomorrow night. Yep. Yep. Um, and so Bill Foster, he comes quite regularly and he always reminds us he's the only physicist on in the Yes. in the house. And Mr. Leven from this committee. Yes. Uh is from California is is is a mainstay. So uh but thank you. And this time I think m distinguished colleague chairman of the interior subcommittee of appropriations and former chair of this u subcommittee Mr.
▶ 0:21:05Simpson would like to ask a question. Thank you. Uh Randy, I fully agree with you on the future of energy and SMRs and advanced design reactors that we're working on and stuff, not only for this country, but frankly for around the world. Uh this committee is obviously very aware of that and and been funding those projects uh as as we can. Let me ask you about dredging though.
▶ 0:21:32uh you have uh I think every year you've come on and told us how important this uh is. What's the status of it? Now is the army because in in the committee we generally fund the army corps of engineer dredging we also do some specific projects if people request an earmark. Are you are you going to request an earmark for dredging in that area this year or excuse me it's community project financing project financing?
▶ 0:22:00one of those things I scratch all that earmarked stuff out. Well, I am Mr. Chairman. Thank you for that question. And and here's the thing. Remember I said in my comments, 40 years that channel has not been dredged out and you say United States Army Corporate Engineers helps, but there's a lot of red tape bureaucratic hoops that they have to jump through.
▶ 0:22:21Um the uh Sabine nature's navigation district is is the district that controls that and they had abnorm tax income. In other words, they're a taxing entity. The people of Jefferson County, we call it Southeast Texas, their jurisdiction, literally have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars. They have, and you know this, these projects, they require a local sponsor. Usually it's 25%. Sabine nature's navigation district.
▶ 0:22:50And we were with Russ Fo yesterday over in the house uh the president's office of manage management and budget say OM and they Sabina Nation waterway navigation district was there with us they literally stepped up to the plate and said we will not contribute 25%. We will contribute 40% and we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. a$1 one or two billion dollar project and they have already started the work.
▶ 0:23:18They've already started the engineering and so now what we need is the United States Congress to step up and say look for the number one energy export not only energy but you don't don't forget I said military too number one energy and military exporting port in the country we really need to do this there's a process and this is more than y'all bargain for so forgive me there's a process where ships when you have VLCC very large crude containers that are coming into the into the Gulf there.
▶ 0:23:49The draft they take is they are not allowed to come up into that channel because it needs to be dredged to 48 ft. So they sit offshore and they have these smaller vessels come up one at a time and offload some of the crude for example and then work their way up the channel which is extremely busy and they dock up and they let they drop their load if you will off offload their cargo.
▶ 0:24:13Then they got to go back out the channel, which is 48 miles to the Port of Bumont, by the way, from the Gulf Coast. They got to go back to the VLCC, load up again. You see what's happening? If the channel was dredged, we could bring more product in and out a lot quicker. And God forbid that we have a problem where we need our military to get in high gear very quickly. It would enable them to do so more efficiently.
▶ 0:24:42Yeah, that doesn't seem like a very efficient way to do it the way we're doing it now. And it's got to be costly to offload out in the Gulf and then Well, absolutely. And I'll tell you, Mr. Chairman, one of the things that we did, was it two or three years ago, we had to change the visa program because a lot of these ships bring sailors from other countries and they can go ashore and I think I forget exactly what the figures were. They had a 20-day visa or whatever it was.
▶ 0:25:08And they weren't they weren't in I mean they would the ship might be after three or four weeks. Well, and and y'all will never know this unless you come to Galveston, but when you come across the causeway from Houston and across the bay, Galveston Bay, you can see the Galveston Island. You can see out in the Gulf, and if it's at night, you can see probably 30 or 40 ships because of their lights. Yeah. lined up all waiting to get in.
▶ 0:25:35So you say, "Well, gosh, 20 days, you'd think they'd get in and out." They would if it was, you know, two or three ships a day, but it's like 30 or 40, I bet a day, if not more. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I'm uh like Marcy, I've never been to Galveastston, but I just read a book on the big hurricane that wiped out the storm of 1900. Yeah, it was 1900. It was almost depends on whose figures you use. 600 6,000 people or 8,000 people. And they raised the entire island of Galveistston nine feet. Yeah.
▶ 0:26:05They brought in some of those dredge spoils. Sure. Ranking member Captor was talking about and they raised that whole island nine feet. But it was good for uh Houston because Houston and Galveston were in competition to be the main port and stuff. Well, I'm still trying Yeah, you have to come up through the Galveastston Bay to get up the channel and into Houston. I'm trying to figure out how I can get some toll arms there where we can we can participate in their freight too. Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
▶ 0:26:34And again, I thank Mr. Weber for his testimony today before us, At this time, I would like to welcome Congressman Jim Costa from the state of California. Mr. Costa, you are recognized for five minutes, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. and ranking member capture and my neighbor Mr. Simpson uh for allowing me to testify before the subcommittee. We have important work uh that we share.
▶ 0:27:03I look forward to working with the subcommittee on goals of deploying technologies for better reservoir management, advancing water, western western water storage projects and upgrading our aging infrastructure that uh we are challenged with. Let me begin with the water operations technical support program that this subcommittee has supported in the past.
▶ 0:27:23Uh clearly uh with uh you know uh the uh changes that we have uh in um weather patterns atmospheric rivers uh uh constitute more and more a source of uh water for um our regions in in in the west and certainly in California. the operations technical support program and the forecast in foreign reservoir uh operation programs cannot be overstated.
▶ 0:27:54Uh for an example in California, we get most of our moisture between end of November and the end of March. Um the first three months of this year were below average. Uh and we measure our rainfall uh in in California, but elsewhere in 10ear averages because sometimes you have an average, you have above average, you have below average. So the 10ear averages we've noticed in the last two decades have changed dramatically.
▶ 0:28:19And our reservoirs were built over a period of the last 60 to 80 years uh with flood management uh manuals that reflected what they thought were the 10ear averages back when these reservoirs were built. Across the west 40 to 60% of our precipitation is now brought to us by these extreme um atmospheric rivers events. meaning that an entire water may hinge on two major storms.
▶ 0:28:47We saw uh an example of that here in the last month. We were way below averages in the middle of February and then we got two large atmospheric river events back in late February and early March and now in Northern California were above average and in the center of the state where I represent were slightly below average.
▶ 0:29:08Nonetheless, the Army Corps of Engineers needs to incorporate this latest data to try to determine how they can balance their flood control manual so that we can try to reserve as much space possible for these atmospheric rivers when they come. Uh the seasonal forecasting observations now become a critical reservoir uh tool for reservoir operations.
▶ 0:29:31Uh these tools empower western reservoirs uh to track and to respond to major precipitation events while retaining water that otherwise might be released. So this gives us more reliability factor. Uh I requested the this subcommittee in previous years and I do once again this year to provide $15 million for fiscal year 26 and 15 million for the fire program.
▶ 0:29:56uh these two areas are very helpful in better managing the reservoirs that we have in the west. Separately, the wind act storage program related to this recent winter storms in March to increase the levels of the snow pack in the northern Sierra Mountains. Um and uh although climate change continues to be a challenge, u it uh oftenimes causes prolonged periods of droughts.
▶ 0:30:22Uh the funds are uh necessary for increasing water storage across western reclamation states to better manage our reservoirs. Such investments are necessary to capture water during the wet years uh so we can withstand the dry years. So I urge committee for the full funding of the $134 million water infrastructure investment for the nation.
▶ 0:30:44uh Congressman um uh Kevin McCarthy and I worked on this a few years back and continue to want to maintain this good investment. Also before the subcommittee report language for the repair of the Bureau of Reclamation canals uh as we know in the west water is the lifeblood of uh the west and where we say water flows, food grows.
▶ 0:31:09Uh we have two major aqueduct systems, the Fran Kern Canal and the Delta Menota Canal and the California Aqueduct that have all been impaired by age and land subsidance, seriously depleting their ability to move water. These defects seriously jeopardize the Bureau of Reclamation's ability to meet its obligations uh in the Sanwaqing Valley uh to feed our nation where we have one of the largest agricultural uh um valleys in the entire world.
▶ 0:31:38So we need to uh provide u additional support to restore the capability of these these canals. Uh we urge the committee to advance the important projects by supporting report language of up to $30 million to repair the reclamation can cows in fiscal year 26. Um protecting the Sanw King River restoration program that we um passed in 20 2008 to resolve a settlement of a court agreement.
▶ 0:32:07The Sanwalking River restoration program aims to restore and maintain not only fish populations Sanwoking River, but to reduce the adverse water supply impacts to the farmers in the fryant division. They wholeheartedly support this effort. The program is not as far along as I'd like and it's very critical that we continue to provide support.
▶ 0:32:28The farmers are providing their support as are the water districts to ensure that we don't throw the management of the Sanwing River into chaos and uncertainty. So I would urge the committee to avoid any efforts to eliminate this program which was enacted as I said back in 2008 to complete uh the final two um projects here on this because our our river systems in California are connected between the federal projects and the state water projects.
▶ 0:32:59Uh we have two uh Adramus fish screens on the Sacramento River. Uh I request that the committee provide 7.8 8 million in funding to finish these projects and to meet the higher quality standards and to protect our ability to move water between the Sanw King Delta, Sacramento Sanwoking Delta and the Sanwok King River Basin, moving water uh further south to the Sanwalk King Valley into Los Angeles. 95% of the water diverted from the Sacramento River will pass through these fish screens.
▶ 0:33:30That's most of the river. These projects help support a more resilient, reliable water supply for agriculture communities while enhancing the environment for local wildlife that are considered threatened. Finally, in closing, I want to thank the members of subcommittee again uh for the chance to testify uh and continue to work for closer collaboration between uh the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and California uh state water project.
▶ 0:33:59uh this collaboration has been a history over the last uh 30 40 years and uh with all the challenges we're facing. It's absolutely essential. Uh there was a unfortunate release back in uh late January, February on two army corps projects like success and Kawia and um we want to avoid those kinds of miscalculations of release of water uh when there's no good place for it to go to.
▶ 0:34:29And so um I thank you for hearing my request. We'll be willing to answer any questions you might have. Keep up the good work uh of this subcommittee. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Costa for your testimony, sir. At this time, I have no questions, sir. But I'd like to uh yield to the distinguished ranking member, Miss Captain, to see if she has any questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Congressman Costa, thanks so much for testifying today. I believe you are a farmer yourself. Yes.
▶ 0:34:58uh third generation uh and uh very proud of the fact that my grandparents came to this country like a lot of immigrants with a deep desire to have a better life and uh what they knew from where they came from in the Azor Islands was dairy and came to California and got involved in the dairy business like a lot of other folks first is milking cows and then later having our own dairy and then that expanded to our ability to to farm um a lot of other types of crops
▶ 0:35:28that um you know the the San King Valley and California as you know is the the largest producer of agricultural production. Um 20% of all the milk in the country comes from California. 80% of the citrus production. 75% of the world's supply of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios come from California. Very diverse. and um $59.2 billion last year at the farm gate.
▶ 0:35:58So um uh the if I didn't have this job, I do have some redeemable skills. I could get a job working in any dairy. Well, I'm going to put you on the hot spot here. About threequarters of a century ago, our favorite uncle and aunt moved from our hometown uh just south of San Francisco. They went out there to work with Dole and Libby and some of the big processors of fruits and vegetables and uh that was terrible for me as a kid to you know to lose them in our own neighborhood.
▶ 0:36:27But anyway, um how has agriculture changed in the last century in your region? I know what happened in the area they lived in. All the apricot trees were cut down for people. uh lots of big superighways came through and it became much more expensive to live in California.
▶ 0:36:50Their neighbors actually three families lived there and they would uh each eight hours of the day a different family would go to work and the next one would come home from work and uh housing became very expensive. Uh what's happened to agriculture in your part of America uh in this period of time? was a third generation farmer. Uh I I thank you for asking the question. Uh change is constant. Change is constant. Uh not only in California but around the country.
▶ 0:37:19And I don't farm the way my father and my uncle did. And they did not farm the way their father did. Um and those that are able to stay involved in agriculture have to address changes uh to to maintain generations in farming. Um and um in some cases those changes are very difficult.
▶ 0:37:44For example um we have been overdrafting our groundwater supply in California and uh but other parts of the country have had that problem as well. uh because we get our water from three sources. We get it from the reservoirs that we have built and in in our mountains where the snow is and it melts and it fills up our reservoirs. We get it from uh groundwater uh and we get it from reusing water. We use all the water tools in our water toolbox.
▶ 0:38:15However, uh for decades we have been overrelying on our groundwater. And I liken that to when I first went to to to Fresno State as a younger guy and I had my first checking account and my father told me, "Kid, you can only write those checks as long as you're making deposits." Well, that's our groundwater. And so, we have to figure out uh strategies to to ensure that we don't overdraft it.
▶ 0:38:43And we've been doing that in California since we passed a challenging law in 2014 by the state legislature that set up milestones in 2020, 2030, and 2040 to get our groundwater in balance. And we're meeting those goals, but it's hard. It's uh how far down do you have to drill now compared to before? Depends what region you're you're in. My area, we have a a better supply for a combination of reasons. It's about 150 ft.
▶ 0:39:13Uh but out on the west side they're drilling down as far as 1,500 ft, 2,000 ft at over a million and a half dollars per well. And um and and what happens is is the cray clay layers below on the surface when you remove that water out of there collapse and then it uh limits your ability to restore that groundwater in the future when you have good water years.
▶ 0:39:38But we're using to we're learning to use when we have these atmospheric rivers in the wintertime to uh flood our fields uh where we have permanent crops uh whether they be trees or vineyards and uh we are having good success. We think in the last 18 months we've recharged between about 1.6 million acre feet of water which is a lot of water.
▶ 0:40:02We've seen certain places where the water table has risen anywhere from 8 to 10 to 15 feet in the last two years. So, it's it's a long-term effort, but we we are focused on it. And um but uh there's there's other things. The dairy industry cost brothers sold out in in a number of years ago um over 30 years ago and there were 16,000 dairies in California.
▶ 0:40:30average size was milking 250 cows which is what about we were milking and had a herd size of about 500 head. Today uh there's just around a thousand dairies left in California out of 14,000 but they're much larger. We're milking 2 to 3,000 cows average in a dairy. 5,000 cow dairies are not unusual.
▶ 0:40:53Um and so uh the change is and the change as hard as you've had to get bigger uh in terms of the scales of economy to stay stay in the dairy business. Uh we're still producing about 20% of all the milk products in America with those 1,000 plus dairies, but they're much larger in size and they take a lot more resources. They're they're multi-million dollar operations these days.
▶ 0:41:21uh and those are among the changes and our cropping patterns have changed. We used to have about 1.4 million acres of cotton up into the early 1990s. Now last year I think we had 150,000 acres of cotton. Uh but it had been replaced with u with walnuts, pistachios and almonds permanent crops. So these are among the changes our processing our value added has changed. Our mechanizations changed.
▶ 0:41:49Most of the agriculture in California, like in other parts of the country, has become highly mechanized because of labor issues in part, but also we're more efficient. And so these are among the changes. It's uh agriculture is more capital intensive. And and I will say this very clearly, and I've never been a big fan of of of tariffs, 44% of California's agriculture is exported.
▶ 0:42:15And uh the these issues of tariffs uh are you know um very very challenging because if they last for any period of time uh foreign markets that we've been able to um benefit from whether they be in Asia or Europe or elsewhere uh they seek other other sources of supply.
▶ 0:42:37Uh we saw that happen in the last tariff round uh when a lot of our export to China on almonds uh became replaced with uh China seeking those almonds from Australia. So um we can't believe that our our risk that you know we get past this over four months, six months a year that necessarily we get we regain these markets.
▶ 0:43:03Uh, I had yesterday a uh citrus grower tell me that um they they they ship a lot of their citrus crop to China that they had two loads that were cancelled here this week uh of what had been a a usual ability to export their their navls and their valenc.
▶ 0:43:25So um you know when you have as large of agriculture economy as we have in California uh these changes are are real and uh they economically impact entire communities. That means you know people that have businesses farm workers some of the hardest workers you ever see in your life. All the people that are on the food chain that have value added on that supply. everybody. The ripple effect of the economy is real.
▶ 0:43:56Thank you very much. I only have one final question, Mr. Chairman, and that is with the recharging of your um water supply because of the atmospheric river, uh how many crop cycles will that satisfy? Five years, three, 10? Well, again, it's based on 10ear averages.
▶ 0:44:15We're hoping that we can take advantage of these atmospheric rivers as they continue to seem to be more of the norm uh and plan accordingly so that we can uh that water behind our reservoirs when they do come and and can anticipate anticipate in terms of how we manage these reservoirs.
▶ 0:44:36And uh that's why the funding here for the uh for the water operations technical support is is so important as we manage our our water supply more efficiently and effectively. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh thank you, Ranking Member Captor. At this time, I'd like to recognize my friend, the gentleman from Idaho, Mr. Simpson. Hi, Jim. Uh hi. Thanks for coming today. Number of our dairies have gone to Idaho.
▶ 0:45:01I was going to say a lot of a lot of those dairies that love California have come to Idaho and made us the third largest dairy state and uh we're going to overtake Wisconsin before very long. We'll never overtake California. Uh it's you got too much of the market and and growing dairies in in California, but uh I just was at a plant chopani uh the largest yogurt plant in the world is in my district and they just uh did a groundbreaking to expand that.
▶ 0:45:29They're going to go from using four million uh uh pounds of dairy of milk to 12.7. That means the dairy cows in the area are going to have to go from about 60,000 to that produce the 4 million to about 171,000. We've got Bettton Court and a lot of folks from California and they've got some goodsized dairies there as well. They're good friends.
▶ 0:45:54Yeah, we've we've been impacted greatly by that high path aven flu with our dairy and poultry industry. Has it uh come up there significantly in Yeah. Do you just out of curiosity, do you in California manage your groundwater and surface water conjunctively? Yes. Okay. Uh I had two goals. I had a number of goals but two of them that I failed on when I was either chairman of this committee or ranking men member under Marcy.
▶ 0:46:25One of them and we talked about both of them today. One of them was to find a permanent geological repository for our spent nuclear fuel. Ah that's Chuck's job now. And the other one that I could never solve is California water issues. It is it was probably one of the uh challenges we had because we had Republicans wanting one thing, Democrats wanting another thing, and finally I said, "You guys need to get together.
▶ 0:46:53How uh how together are Republicans and Democrats on California water?" Now, I I would describe we're making progress. Um I used to chair the Senate uh state senate a and water committee in California when I was in the legislature. Uh and having both agriculture and water made it a very important committee under its jurisdiction.
▶ 0:47:17And and the things that I always tell people with California water is is that it's the three C's. It's complex, it's complicated, and it's It's uh complex because we have the inner operations between very large federal water projects and a very large state water projects and we've got local water projects and they all were built at different times financed differently.
▶ 0:47:47They have different rules of operation, but yet we share uh you know um a general uh supply of water and we have to work together and that's gotten better. Um so u it it the the complexity of of of trying to work together in in in Sacramento and here in Washington uh is always part of the challenge getting Democrats and Republicans to work together.
▶ 0:48:16Uh but I think in in recent years, one of the things that we've learned and it gets back to the controversy is is that getting engaged in endless litigation, endless litigation, doesn't bring one more drop of water. Yep.
▶ 0:48:32Um and so what we've tried to do uh in recent years in a bipartisan fashion is trying to look at um interim and long-term plans to create the one thing that water users in California and in the West all seek which is greater water reliability. Yeah, water reliability based on 10-year averages.
▶ 0:48:57Realizing that some years are good, some years are not, and trying to determine what our average I mean, California has been blessed. We've got the Sierra Nevada. We've got that as a major source of supply. Um, and we have access to the Colorado River, but you know, the Colorado River is beset with the upper basin and lower basin states as well that were in endless litigation up until the 1960s. and they had the law of the river and they finally resolved it.
▶ 0:49:24But they resolved it based upon uh evidence that is no longer real and that is that the river on 10ear averages would yield 17 million acre feet of water. Uh, Lake Meade uh, outside of Las Vegas has not been filled since 2000 and it was almost a dead pool two years ago before you had these large atmospheric rivers that that ended up providing more supply.
▶ 0:49:51And what we've come to the realization between the upper basin states and the lower basin states and and some people have rights to the river water that have never been able to exercise it like Utah because they not connected to the river. And there are some Native American that have rights to the river that they've never been able to access.
▶ 0:50:10But what we've come to the realization in the last two decades with better understanding of of water supply and measurements is that the yield of the river of the Colorado is about 10 to 12 million acre feet. So this great agreement in the 1960s was reached by everybody allocating 17 million acre feet on tenure averages.
▶ 0:50:33Well, if your allocation is really more like 10 to 11 million acre feet on your then guess what they're starting to realize, well, how are we going to reallocate that uh smaller supply of water and so the three C's are are applicable. You know, they're they're it's complicated, it's complex, and and it is always controversial, but I think because we've been basically able to develop a plan and you know, it was interesting.
▶ 0:51:01I thought within the first couple weeks of the Trump administration, Governor Nuome specifically flew to Washington and had an hour meeting with the president and over I'm told threearters of the meeting was on water and what the state's trying to do to work together with the federal government.
▶ 0:51:19the president signed an executive order that uh by April 20th, which is coming up, that the secretary of interior and the secretary of commerce would report to the president on on water supply. And so we we want to work with the administration and we we obviously know that it's in California and Western States long-term interest to try to find solutions to a reliable water supply. And that's what this is all about.
▶ 0:51:48It's always easy to allocate water the more you've got of it. And when you're assuming that they looked at that and it was the five years before that had really wet years. And they were told at the time when they made this agreement and they said that there was 17 and a half million acre feet of water that went down to Colorado every year. They were told you're only looking at the wet years. You're not looking at the dry years. Right. And but it's always easier to allocate it. And you're right. That's the problem. I don't think we'll ever see like meeting like Pal again. Yeah.
▶ 0:52:16I blew over it yesterday and you can see where the high mark was and where the lower is and I agree with you. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, thank you. I appreciate it. And uh now that I'm no longer chairman or ranking member of this committee, I pass this on to someone who has the ability and the intelligence to solve this nuclear waste issue and the California water issue. And you and Laura can do a great job on this, I'm sure. Let's work on all of it together. Yes. Gleefully, Mr.
▶ 0:52:44chairman and I I thank you for your questions and Mr. Kasa, I thank you for your presentation and we're soliciting some of your thoughts and I I really appreciate the the update on California water and agriculture. Um, thank you, sir. Well, appreciate all of your good work and when we work together, we get things done. Thank you. Yes, sir. With that, the hearing's adjourned. The other thing has changed.