U.S. representative expects Republican party to sweep November elections

By WES SANDER

Capital Press

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., says he is helping to pave the way for a suspension of federal species protections on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in hopes that Republicans will gain control of Congress this year.

A bill being introduced by Nunes, titled the California Water Reliability Act, would immediately restore full allocations to the San Joaquin Valley from the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The bill would require lifting federal Endangered Species Act restrictions on the Delta, an idea that has long remained a political non-starter. But Nunes believes that scenario will change if Republicans gain control of the House in November, spokesman Andrew House said.

"The Congressman is drawing a very strong (distinction) between what he calls dustbowl Democrats and what he feels is the right policy for Californians," House said. "He feels it's his job to contrast what the Democrats are doing with what the Republicans would be doing if they were in control."

Nunes has built a reputation for confrontational rhetoric in California water politics. Writing on his Web site, he calls attention to a water-delivery infrastructure built for a state with roughly half its present-day population -- a point on which all sides agree -- but then castigates environmental interests for causing current water shortages, which state and federal officials say has resulted more from drought than environmental restrictions.

"Infrastructure built in the middle of the last century cannot meet our long-term needs -- particularly when radicals in the environmental movement are demanding ever increasing amounts of water for their own misguided purposes," Nunes wrote.

When Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently announced she might introduce legislation to increase farmers' deliveries from the Delta for two years by suspending ESA restrictions, environmental interests threatened to walk away from the planning process for a through-Delta conveyance canal or pipeline.

That effort is seen by San Joaquin Valley irrigators and Southern California water users as key to stabilizing future supplies. A project of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it must maintain the involvement of all interest groups to pass muster with the new Delta governance council created by state lawmakers last October.

That's why water managers, along with political leadership at state and federal levels, have been treading a middle ground, working to maintain engagement from environmental and fishing groups who believe that one year of lifting restrictions could have irreversible consequences for Delta salmon populations that have declined drastically in recent years.

But the middle ground has frayed while San Joaquin Valley farmers have fallowed several hundred thousand acres. And Nunes believes support for his bill's provisions will carry through November's midterm elections.

"We know for a fact that a Republican House would bring up the bill and would pass the bill," House said. "We have absolute certainty."