SACRAMENTO-
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced that California will get $50 million in drought relief funds, primarily for research, helping endangered fish and money to help the Central Valley Project operate more efficiently in moving water around the state.
“California is ground zero for drought. There isn’t a state that is worse off than this state,”said Jewell.
Flanked by Gov. Jerry Brown, Jewell said the state’s congressional delegation, headed by Senator Diane Feinstein, helped frame the drought relief for Washington.
“We have to use water more efficiently. We can’t waste, we have to recycle, we have to store and save and deliver our water very carefully,” said Brown.
None of the money will be able to solve California’s immediate water shortage, but it will develop strategies on how to deal with a drought they may linger because of climate change.
Brown also said political confrontations between growers and environmentalists is no solution either.
“Everybody is running around saying, ‘Build a dam here, eliminate an endangered species there,'” Brown said. “It’s not going to produce any more water this year. The only person who can produce water is Mother Nature.”
But he says lots of smaller steps being financed by federal funds can make the drought more bearable until mother nature acts.
