Long-Awaited Plan to Fight California’s Epic Drought Passes Senate with GOP Support

In a rare showing of bipartisanship on an environmental issue, the U.S. Senate on Thursday night voted unanimously to pass a bill providing relief for California’s epic drought — though some environmentalists say the compromised bill does not go far enough to truly combat the problem.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was able to overcome Republican objections to her bill, the California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, by scrapping $300 million in spending on various drought-relief projects.  The bill was designed to be able to fast-track through the Senate, bypassing both committee review and public debate after weeks of closed-door negotiations with GOP Senators.

In an interview with South California Public Radio, the bill’s co-sponsor Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) admitted that the compromised version is “not a great bill, but it’s a good bill,” and assured that environmentalists got “almost everything they wanted.”  But Patricia Schifferle of environmental group Pacific Advocates told the station otherwise, saying it puts tribal, fishing and northern California water rights interests “in a lower priority in the water bucket line and moves Westlands and other westside irrigators up the water bucket line.”

As of last week, severe drought officially covered every inch of California, setting up “unprecedented”fire conditions in several areas.  The extreme drought and heat have depleted reservoirs and even aquifers, increasing the state’s chance of earthquakes, as a new Nature study found.  More than 20,000 residents had fled their homes from fires in Southern California last week.

Long-Awaited Plan to Fight California’s Epic Drought Passes Senate with GOP Support