City of Oxnard Water Recycling and Desalination Act of 2006
CITY OF OXNARD WATER RECYCLING AND DESALINATION ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 20, 2006)
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Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, my hope is that I can explain and demonstrate sufficiently the enthusiasm for this legislation by my constituents in the city of Oxnard. I rise in support of H.R. 2334, and it is called the Oxnard Water Recycling and Desalination Act.
First I want to thank Chairman Pombo and Ranking Member Rahall for their support of this measure. I also want to thank the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Radanovich, and Ranking Member NAPOLITANO and their staffs for the key role in the bill's passage.
H.R. 2334 authorizes a regional water resources project. It is named the Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment Act, or, as the initials will summarize to, it is the GREAT program, and it is great in many ways, located in my congressional district.
Oxnard, California, as so many communities today, are faced with the difficult task of providing reliable and safe drinking water for their customers. The city of Oxnard has taken this situation and worked on it. It is one of California's fastest growing cities. The water needs of the city's agricultural users has exceeded its local water resources. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and the region, but at the same time many people are moving to the area.
Now, consequently, over 50 percent of its water has had to be imported from outside sources. Recognizing these challenges, Oxnard developed the GREAT program to address its long-term water needs, and as my colleague, Mr. Kildee from Michigan illustrated, the city itself and the surrounding areas grappled with this issue themselves, recognizing that they needed to be creative and come up with a solution that would meet their needs.
This GREAT program includes a new regional groundwater desalination facility to serve potable water customers in the city of Oxnard. It includes a recycled water system to include agricultural water users and an added protection against seawater intrusion.
Finally, it includes a wetlands restoration component that reuses the discharges from the groundwater desalination and recycled groundwater treatment facilities. It is a full-circle opportunity to take every advantage of the water supplies that are there to enhance them and even to reuse them.
Implementation of this GREAT program will provide many significant regional benefits. It will reduce the consumption of groundwater for agricultural and industrial purposes. It will cut imported delivery water requirements, and it will improve local reliability of high-quality water deliveries. It will also add enormously to the restoration of the wetlands in the region.
Mr. Speaker, I commend this Resources Committee for trying to find innovative and effective ways of extending water supplies in the West.
In my view, the City of Oxnard Water and Desalination Act offers such a creative solution.
Again, I thank the Committee on Resources for supporting this bill, and I urge its immediate passage.
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