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McClintock to Feinstein: “Get Out of the Way”

The Wall Street Journal ran two letters today (April 26) responding to a letter it ran recently from Sen. Diane  Feinstein, which in turn was responding to a column in the Journal criticizing Feinstein and the Obama administration for trying to delay the Cadiz Water Project.

First off, Representative Tom McClintock (R – Roseville) wrote this:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is wrong (Letters, April 16) and Allysia Finley is right (Cross Country, April 9) about the Cadiz water project that would deliver 50,000 acre feet of water to parched communities in Southern California. That’s enough to meet the annual residential needs of 100,000 families at no public cost. Without Cadiz, all of that water is lost to evaporation.

Sen. Feinstein has also been instrumental in blocking Senate consideration of House legislation (H.R. 2898) that would have allowed us this year to capture and store hundreds of thousands of acre feet of winter runoff that was instead lost to the ocean.

Her charge that Cadiz is attempting to “evade environmental review” by using an existing railroad right of way is absurd. The project and the pipeline route were publicly reviewed, approved and sustained at trial during California’s stringent environmental review process. The law specifically encourages ancillary use of the rights of way, and the railroad itself has affirmed this use.

California needs more than Sen. Feinstein’s sympathy. We need action now. No one is asking her to lead these efforts that are supported by so many water districts, labor groups, chambers of commerce and a bipartisan coalition in Congress. All she needs to do is get out of the way. Please.

 

That was followed by this letter, from Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America:

California needs more water solutions, not fewer. It’s time to let go of outdated information and help Southern California access this urgently needed, thoroughly reviewed project.

These letters represent the strong support the Cadiz Water Project enjoys from Congressional Representatives and labor unions, and speak for thousands of the project’s supporters from throughout Southern California.

 

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