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Denham: Sounding Alarm on Delta Risk Aug 17, 2012
Stockton Record
STOCKTON - U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham, running for re-election in a new district that includes south San Joaquin County, stressed the importance of protecting the Delta from a catastrophic flood at a hearing here Thursday.
The topic isn't new. The oft-cited Jones Tract flood is now eight years in the past.
Asked about the timing, Denham said he called for the congressional field hearing because of Stockton's high vulnerability to floods.
"I want to take it back to my colleagues in Washington, D.C., to show this is something that will impact the entire nation," Denham, a Republican from Merced, said after the hearing. "You thought Katrina was bad. It was a horrific situation. If something like that were to happen here to the Delta, it would be far more extreme."
Generally, Denham has not been aligned with San Joaquin County on Delta issues. As a south Valley representative, he supported legislation by U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, to crank up the pumps in the south Delta, exporting more water for southland farms and cities. And he has attempted to delay the restoration of the San Joaquin River.
But the new district in which he is running includes territory on both sides of the state's water wars - areas near the Delta, like Manteca and Tracy, as well as areas farther south that rely on water exports. Denham is running for re-election against Democratic challenger Jose Hernandez in District 10.
U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, said he didn't know why the hearing was held and called it "political" in nature.
"This subcommittee hasn't done anything at all for two years and now they want to have a hearing. What can I tell you?" said McNerney, who sat in on the proceeding of the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, which Denham chairs. "(But) I know Jeff, he's a good guy and he does care about the Delta, there's no doubt in my mind about that," McNerney added.
The thrust of Thursday's hearing was the need to press state and federal governments to support levee maintenance - and to make it clear where the money's coming from in the hours immediately after a flood.
Ron Baldwin, retired head of the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services, talked about the confusion immediately after the Jones Tract levee broke on a sunny day in 2004.
"I was sitting out there within an hour of that break and we were sort of arguing over who can fund it, who can act," Baldwin said. "What we need is to get a cash flow going at the time of the emergency for the flood fight. ... We can't have 24-hour delays waiting to respond to a levee problem for bureaucratic reasons."
There was relatively little discussion of the twin tunnels that Gov. Jerry Brown proposes building beneath the Delta, in part to secure the state's water supply in the event of a flood.
McNerney asked witnesses if there are assurances that money will exist to preserve levees even after the tunnels are built.
"I don't have that feeling, and it's a concern to me and the region," he said.
Denham said afterward that there will "absolutely" be protection of the levees even if the tunnels are constructed. "The Delta is so large that I think we're always going to have to focus on maintenance and upgrades, and I think the entire state needs to be aware of that," he said.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/breitlerblog.
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