Fighting for Water

Kern-Friant Canal - California’s water infrastructure needs remain unmet despite years of drought and diminishing water supplies.  Assemblymember Salas fought to increase investments for hydropower on the Kern-Friant Canal.

• AB 935 will allow for up to $7 million in state funds to be invested in the Friant-Kern Canal Restoration Projects.
• These shovel-ready projects will allow us to manage our water supply more efficiently and provide needed relief to those who have been impacted the most by ongoing drought conditions.
• He will continue this fight next year to secure the $7 million needed to get these projects off the ground.

Groundwater Management - We are under a mandate from the state through the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to reach specific goals by 2020 toward making all California groundwater basins sustainable.  Assemblymember Salas fought to increase groundwater sustainability and overall water storage with his AB 453 by:

• Allowing Semitropic Water Storage District (WSD) to more accurately monitor groundwater extraction by requiring reporting via meters.

• Providing Semitropic WSD with the authority to fund projects and programs to recover groundwater levels in a basin subject to critical overdraft.

• Funding projects like the Tulare Lake Storage and Floodwater Protection Projects will create additional surface storage and expand groundwater conjunctive use capacity. These projects are also expected to provide improved local water supply reliability, regional flood protection benefits, and water quality improvements.

Streamlining Government - AB 939 (Salas) clarifies that a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) can be formed by any local agency or combination of agencies.  

• This removed the cumbersome process of reforming agencies that are already in existence.  It also increases the timeframe from 10 days to 20 days for the public to review information prior to any fee increases.