1 minute
Senator Jim Nielsen, R-Red Bluff, issued the following statement in response to Senate Democrats killing his proposal today to fully fund and build Sites Reservoir:
“Here they go again. Senate Democrats need to get their heads screwed on straight. For the second time this year, they have killed critical funding to build Sites Reservoir.
“California is in the third year of a devastating drought. The state budget is flush with money. Doesn’t it make sense to get large-scale, aboveground water storage funded and built?
“What’s most frustrating is that voters overwhelming approved building water storage via Proposition 1 back in 2014. Not one shovel has been turned. Not one drop of water has been stored.
“That’s shamefully irresponsible and shortsighted of our state’s leaders. The future of our children and grandchildren depends on a reliable water supply.”
Nielsen offered amendments to Assembly Bill 2201, which would have established the Water Storage and Conveyance Fund to provide:
- $2.6 billion to fully fund Sites Reservoir; and
- $685 million to repair the Friant-Kern/Delta-Mendota Canals and the San Luis Field/San Joaquin Divisions of the California Aqueduct.
To read the amendments, click here(link is external).
To watch Sen. Nielsen’s Senate floor speech, click here(link is external).