Mr. President, I speak on behalf of myself and Senator Harris to reintroduce legislation to establish the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area, California's first National Heritage…
Mr. President, I speak on behalf of myself and Senator Harris to reintroduce legislation to establish the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area, California's first National Heritage Area. I am very pleased to work with Senator Harris, Congressman John Garamendi, and our colleagues in the State on this much needed legislation. Our legislation will establish a new national heritage area in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to promote environmental stewardship, heritage conservation, and economic development across five delta counties.
The Delta Protection Commission will manage the heritage area in accordance with California law and in partnership with delta communities. The management planning process provided by this legislation will be open to the public and collaborative. Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, private property owners, and all stakeholders will have a voice in the management planning for the heritage area.
The goal is to conserve and protect the delta, its communities, its natural resources, and its rich history.
In short, this legislation does not affect water rights or water contracts, nor does it is impose any additional responsibilities on local governments or private landowners. Instead, this legislation authorizes federal assistance to support local projects as part of an inclusive process required by State law.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the largest estuary in the Western United States and perhaps the most productive and ecologically important watershed in North America. This extensive inland delta is a natural marvel and national treasure that must be protected. The delta offers recreational opportunities enjoyed by millions of Californians and out-of-State visitors alike, who come each year for boating, fishing, hunting, and sightseeing.
The delta provides critical habitat for more than 750 wildlife species, including sandhill cranes and other migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway. It also provides habitat for iconic native fish like the chinook salmon, some as large as 60 pounds, which return each year to travel through the delta to spawn in tributaries upstream.
These same waterways provide freshwater to millions of California households and irrigated farmland south of the delta and elsewhere in the State.
Before being converted for farmland starting in the 19th century, the delta flooded regularly following the springtime snowmelt and once supported the continent's largest Native American communities.
Later, the delta served as the gateway for the California Gold Rush, after which Chinese immigrant workers built hundreds of miles of levees to make the delta's rich peat soils available for farming and to control flooding.
Japanese, Chinese, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, South Asian, and other immigrants began the area's farming legacy and established proud communities that continue today.
Over the years, the vibrant ``river culture'' endemic to delta communities has attracted the attention of celebrated authors from Mark Twain and Jack London to Joan Didion.
A national heritage area designation would help to preserve this uniquely American story by providing supportive local governments across the delta with a needed management framework, technical assistance, and modest Federal funding.
Today, the delta faces crisis due to proliferate invasive species, urban and agricultural runoff, wastewater overloads, channelization, dredging, formidable water exports, and other stressors.
Many delta islands are now 10 to 20 feet below sea level due to subsidence, and the present levee system is inadequate in providing reliable flood protection for historic communities, agricultural enterprises, and infrastructure. Alarmingly, many existing levees were simply not engineered to withstand earthquakes. Should levees fail,
a rush of saltwater into the interior delta would damage this already fragile ecosystem, disrupt drinking water supplies, flood agricultural land, inundate towns, and damage roads, powerlines, and water infrastructure.
Establishing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area will secure much needed Federal resources for delta communities. Our legislation recognizes the delta as a working landscape central to California life and seeks to further local projects already underway that promote environmental stewardship, heritage conservation, community revitalization, and economic development throughout the delta.
This legislation also seeks to fulfill the broadly supported 2009 California State law that called for a heritage area designation for the delta and the Delta Protection Commission's own feasibility report in 2012.
Our legislation is a small part of the commitment the Federal Government must make to the California delta. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues at every level of government to restore the delta and its native species, upgrade California's water supply, safeguard against flood risk, improve water quality, and preserve delta communities' rich heritage and continued vibrancy.
