Garamendi Secures Wins for Bay Area and Delta in Water Resources Development Act

WASHINGTON, DC- Today, U.S. Representative John Garamendi (D-CA08), a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, secured key provisions in the "Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024" (H.R.8812) for the Bay Area and California Delta. The bipartisan legislation passed the House of Representatives and is expected to become law this year.

"The biennial Water Resources Development Act will upgrade our water infrastructure, harden our communities to climate change, and restore aquatic ecosystems across the Bay Area and California Delta," Garamendi said. "As a longstanding member of the House Committee that writes this law, I secured key provisions in this year's bill to dredge the Mare Island Strait, restore Lake Tahoe, and authorize the Army Corps to remove abandoned and derelict vessels. I expect President Biden to sign this bipartisan bill into law once we negotiate a final compromise with the Senate."

Garamendi is a senior Democratic member of the Committee's Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' civil works projects, including dredging, flood control, and aquatic ecosystem restoration projects.

Garamendi secured the following provisions in the "Water Resources Development Act of 2024" (H.R.8812):

Bay Area Wins:

• Mare Island Strait: Directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a feasibility study with the City of Vallejo to deepen the Mare Island Strait Channel to better support the U.S. Coast Guard Station Vallejo's missions. Deepening the channel is also part of Garamendi's ongoing work to support the redevelopment of Mare Island and the shipyard.
• San Francisco Bay: Authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a comprehensive study of sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially the impacts on disadvantaged communities across Contra Costa and the eight other Bay Area counties. Congress first authorized the Army Corps to study sea level rise in the Bay Area in 1976 but failed to include Conta Costa County.
• East Bay Integrated Recycled Water Program: Authorizing an additional $20 million in federal funding for the East Bay Municipal Utility District's East Bayshore Recycled Water Project and comprehensive Integrated Recycled Water Program, which will provide a drought-resilient water supply for East Bay residents. Garamendi increased total available federal funding from the current $25 million to $45 million under the bill.
• Central Contra Costa County: With Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), authorizing $40 million in federal funding for new water supply projects with the Army Corps of Engineers in central Contra Costa County by the Delta Diablo and Ironhouse Sanitary Districts.
• Bay Area Wetlands Restoration: Requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to use at least 70 percent of dredged materials to restore Bay Area wetlands in San Pablo, Grizzly, Honker and Suisun Bays, thereby reducing the volume of dredged material wasted via ocean dumping.
• Suisun City Marina: Ensured that dredging the channel for public access to the Suisun City Marina remains a federal responsibility. In 2021, the Army Corps tried to walk away from its longstanding legal responsibility to dredge this critical channel for public access to the Bay-Delta waterfront. Garamendi successfully blocked this misguided effort and continues working to get the Corps to resume regular dredging of the channel to the Suisun City marina.

Regional Wins:

• Sacramento River Restoration: Directing the Army Corps of Engineers to help restore the Sacramento River floodplain by incorporating natural and nature-based features in all Army Corps projects like setback levees north of the Freemont Weir.
• Keeping Tahoe Blue: Reauthorizing the Amry Corps' pilot program to help keep invasive aquatic species out of alpine lakes like Lake Tahoe and securing an additional $20 million in federal funding for water infrastructure improvements across the Lake Tahoe Basin, including to reduce septic leeching and stormwater runoff to help Keep Tahoe Blue.
• Native American Artifacts: Establishing a pilot program in the Sacramento River watershed to allow federally recognized Native American tribes to acquire and rebury any burials and cultural resources found during construction of an Army Corps project, namely levees. The Committee-passed WRDA 2024 incorporates key provisions from Garamendi and Representative Doug LaMalfa's (R-CA01) "Native American Burial Sites and Cultural Resources Protection Act" (H.R.5865).

Statewide Wins:

• Removal of Abandoned and Derelict Vessels: Incorporates key provisions from Garamendi's "Abandoned and Derelict Vessel Removal Act of 2024" (H.R.7719), expanding the Army Corps' existing vessel removal authority to also include those abandoned and derelict vessels not impeding navigation. Current law only allows the Army Corps to remove vessels blocking a federally maintained channel, not abandoned and derelict vessels on the shoreline.
• Drought Resiliency: Making water supply a co-equal primary mission of the Army Corps of Engineers, which would allow Army Corps-owned reservoirs in drought-prone western states like California to be operated for new water supply in addition to flood control, outdoor recreation, and aquatic ecosystem benefits. The Committee-passed WRDA 2024 incorporates Garamendi and Representative Grace F. Napolitano's (D-CA-31) bipartisan "Priority for Water Supply and Conservation Act of 2024" (H.R.7065).
• Recreational Boating at Reservoirs: Allowing the Army Corps to keep marina and similar fees charged to boaters at Army Corps-owned reservoirs to fund infrastructure improvements at those federally owned reservoirs in California and other states. Current law requires that all fees charged to boaters at Army Corps reservoirs be sent to the U.S. Treasury as miscellaneous revenue to the federal government. Incorporates key provisions from Garamendi and Rep. Bruce Westerman's (R-AR) bipartisan "Lake Access Keeping Economies Strong (LAKES) Act" (H.R.6906).
• Dam Safety: Reauthorizes theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Dam Safety Program through 2-28, which provides federal funding for training, staffing needs, emergency planning, and dam inspection and monitoring activities by the State of California's Department of Water Resources' Division of Safety of Dams. It incorporates key provisions from Garamendi and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla's (D-CA) "National Dam Safety Program Reauthorization Act of 2023" (S.3111).
• Levee Safety: Reauthorizing the Army Corps of Engineers' National Levee Safety Initiative to help reduce flood risk by modernizing Army Corps levees across the country through 2033. Garamendi also directed the Army Corps to expedite emergency repairs of levees in the California Delta

###

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.