KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Rep. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, is cosponsoring a bill introduced by Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, that would improve California’s water storage infrastructure.
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H.R. 2749 – the Dam Authorization, Maintenance, and Safety (DAMS) Act – would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to repair or modify aging dams and evaluate whether additional modifications could be made to the dam facility to increase water storage capacity.
Water storage has been a long standing issue in addressing California’s drought crisis, and by restoring and improving California’s existing dams, the Golden State could dramatically increase its storage capacity at little cost to taxpayers.
“Solving California’s drought crisis is a top priority for me, and at this point almost everything is on the table,” said Knight. “This bill is one of many steps we need to provide relief for our state.”
Currently, the process for repairing water infrastructure is complicated and narrow in scope. For example, the Secretary of the Interior can repair dams in light of “new hydrologic or seismic data” but cannot make modifications for normal deterioration.
The DAMS Act would grant the Secretary of the Interior this authority, improving California’s water storage capacity and providing relief for its drought.
H.R. 2749 was introduced on Friday and now awaits assignment to committee.
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In order to increase water to Californians and decrease the effects of the drought, I think it is imperative that a moratorium be placed on the bottling of water from our central valleys! This bottling of water needs to be moved to a state that has a surplus not a deficit…no matter what the financial cost is to our state.