Six GOP congressmen ask why parts of Valley have water cutbacks in time of relative plenty
A congressional panel wants to know why water is short in parts of the San Joaquin Valley despite above-average reservoir storage this year. Six Republican lawmakers, and zero Democrats, took part in Friday’s hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries. It happened in a conference room at the Hotel Mission de Oro in tiny Santa Nella, Merced County. The members criticized fish protections that reduce pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to as far south as Kern County. They also urged new and enlarged reservoirs to store more water from wet years for use in dry ones.
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