The California Chamber of Commerce is urging a U.S. Senate policy committee to authorize new federally backed tools to help local agencies advance critically important water supply projects. The financial tools will help local entities build a more drought resilient water supply infrastructure across the West with water supply management projects including surface water storage, groundwater storage, and water reuse and recycling. The tools are included in federal bills S. 2533 by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) and H.R. 5247 by Representative John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove). Innovation In its June 10 letter to the chair and ranking members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the CalChamber supported proposals to: • Authorize a new, innovative, federally backed low-interest, long-term program through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation—the Reclamation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (RIFIA); • Expand the highly successful federal WaterSMART program, allowing the Reclamation Bureau to use the program to provide a more robust level of competitive cost-shared partnerships (the lesser of $20 million or 25% of total project costs) for a wide range of water supply and water management projects, including small-scale storage, conveyance, integrated regional water management, and water recycling and reuse; and • Reform [...]
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