TESTIMONY OF CARL JANZEN

*Farmer*

Madera, California

Board President

**Madera Irrigation District**

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## BEFORE THE 

**UNITED STATES SENATE**

**COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES**

# SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER AND POWER

### February 28, 2008

Mr. Chairman and members of the Water and Power Subcommittee, My name is
Carl Janzen. I am a third generation farmer and President of the Board
of the Madera Irrigation District, which I will refer to in my testimony
as "MID". Thank you for inviting me to provide testimony on S. 1473, a
bill that authorizes critical federal funds to be directed to the Madera
Irrigation District's Water Supply Enhancement Project in Madera,
California. We are extremely grateful to Senator Feinstein for
introducing this legislation and for her leadership on water issues in
California. As you may know, the House of Representatives has already
unanimously passed the companion bill, H.R. 1855. The House also passed
this legislation in 2006, and I cannot stress enough how critical it is
to Madera and the Central Valley of California that the Senate complete
final action on this legislation this year.

MID was established in 1920 to supply surface water to farmers in its
service area. Madera farmers are some of the most productive in
California's San Joaquin Valley, among the most productive agricultural
regions in the world. Every year we produce over one billion dollars in
almonds, grapes, milk and other agricultural products for consumers in
the United States and around the globe. But unlike many other
agricultural areas in California, most of Madera's farms are still owned
and operated by families like my own. Madera's agricultural economy is
the backbone of our region and we're very proud of it.

Water, of course, is the fuel that runs our region's economic engine. To
obtain the water we need, farmers within MID use a combination of
groundwater pumped from beneath our land and surface water delivered to
us by MID. The need to pump groundwater varies in response to weather
conditions and the availability of surface water, with an increase in
pumping required in dry years when there is a limited supply of surface
water.

Over the years, the amount of groundwater pumped has exceeded the amount
of water recharging the aquifer, resulting in what scientists call
groundwater overdraft. Even in wet years, the groundwater is in
overdraft because of pumping in dry years and increased pumping for
municipal and industrial purposes. This overdraft has caused the water
table to decline and groundwater quality to degrade. In addition,
because we have to reach further underground for our water, it is
becoming more and more expensive to pump to the surface.

MID's efforts to reduce the need for groundwater by establishing a
supply of surface water began in the 1930s, when our forefathers already
knew that we needed a stable and reliable source of surface water. Their
foresight led to the sale of MID's property on the San Joaquin river to
the Bureau of Reclamation for the construction of the Friant Dam. Like
other dams, the Friant Dam was designed for flood control and, most
importantly, to store water for agricultural use. The storage provided
by the dam is one of the cornerstones of our water supply system and is
essential to the vitality of our economy.

But while storage in the Friant has reduced our reliance on groundwater
pumping, Madera's aquifer is still in overdraft at the rate of 100,000
acre feet a year. In 1912, when my Grandfather dug the first well on our
farm, he had to drill just twenty feet before finding water to sustain
our family business. Recently, my son and I had to drill 165 feet in the
same area. And my family is one of the lucky ones. Some farmers are
drilling seven- or eight-hundred feet down to get water, if they can
find any at all.

The need for additional storage to reduce the rate of groundwater
overdraft and stabilize supply is why MID is pursuing the Water Supply
Enhancement Project. Like the Friant Dam, MID's project is key to our
water security and the continued health of our region's economy and
communities. But unlike the Friant Dam, our Project provides storage of
water underground. It is what we in the west call a "water bank": an
underground storage facility designed to store our water for use during
dry years.

MID has been working for years to realize its vision of an underground
storage facility to serve the needs of the community. We have talked to
our farmers and other members of our community so we understand exactly
how to develop and operate the Project to meet our needs. Over the last
several years, MID has held dozens of public meetings in Madera County
alone and has received many letters of enthusiastic support from local,
state and federal elected officials, as well as organizations, agencies,
and individuals. As a result of our outreach efforts, support for the
Water Supply Enhancement Project has been overwhelming.

Having achieved the necessary public support, it is essential that this
support be maintained. One of the key components of the Project's
administration is the Oversight Monitoring Committee, which MID
established in 2005. Members of the Committee include community leaders
and neighboring property owners who provide a watchful public eye on the
Project's development and operation. Among many other responsibilities,
the Committee is charged with protecting neighboring landowners from
potential impacts from the Project, and is vital to ensuring that the
Project is responsive to the concerns of local landowners and the
community.

MID has invested \$37.5 million to purchase approximately 13,648 acres
known as the "Madera Ranch", land ideally suited for the Water Supply
Enhancement Project. As designed by MID, the facility has the ability to
store 250,000 acre feet of water, about half of what the Friant Dam can
store. The Project could move 55,000 acre feet into or out of storage
each year, enough to provide the 147,000 acres in MID with reliable
sources during dry years. A key element of our Project is to always
leave behind ten percent of the water banked, thus reducing the rate of
groundwater overdraft.

While this would be the first underground water storage facility in
Madera, there are many examples of successful water banks in California.
The Project is based on proven methods and the latest in sustainable
water management practices. We have learned from the experiences of the
pioneers in this area and are committed to serving our community with
one of California's best examples of underground banking facilities.

Located in Southwestern Madera County, the Madera Ranch has historically
been used for row crops, orchards, vineyards, and livestock grazing.
Owned for generations by the Pope family, most of the Madera Ranch has
never been farmed. The land contains valuable habitat and some of the
Central Valley's last remaining large sections of native grasslands.
Most importantly for the purposes of the water storage facility, the
soils on and underneath the land are ideal for percolating water from
the surface down to the aquifer. In fact, large pools of water literally
disappear overnight, quickly percolating down to the overdrafted aquifer
below.

We have watched others attempt to build water banks in Madera and fail
because they were motivated more by the goals of out-of-state business
interests than by local needs and priorities. In the mid-1990s, the
Bureau of Reclamation tried to buy the Madera Ranch and build its own
water bank. As part of this effort, the Bureau conducted extensive
studies regarding the feasibility of building such a bank. When the
Bureau abandoned the effort because of other reasons, MID and other
private parties continued to explore the possibility of building a water
bank on the Madera Ranch property. Not counting the Bureau\'s own
in-house efforts and studies, over \$8 million has been spent on studies
relating to this project by MID and private parties.

This long history of studying the possibility of a water bank is the
reason why S. 1473 contains an unusual feature: it declares the project
feasible and states that no further studies are necessary. We have
submitted for the record a list of the 18 studies that have been
conducted since the 1990s regarding the water bank, including the
Bureau\'s most recent appraisal study which found that \"the Madera
Ranch Groundwater Bank is a project that has been investigated for
approximately ten years for its potential to improve water supply
reliability and reduce groundwater overdraft conditions.\" The Madera
water bank has been studied more extensively than perhaps any other
potential Bureau-supported project and the unanimous view of these
studies is that this project should be built as soon as possible.

There is another reason why it is so urgent to build the water bank.
This committee is currently considering Senator Feinstein\'s legislation
to implement the provisions of the San Joaquin River Restoration
settlement. The settlement, which MID supports, will place additional
strain on the water supply available to Central Valley farmers. Already,
there is a 100,000 acre-feet per year overdraft in Madera County. For
MID alone the overdraft is 40,000 acre-feet. When the settlement is
implemented, MID\'s water supply from the Friant Division, already
inadequate, would be reduced by as much as 20 percent on an annual
average basis.

The San Joaquin River Restoration settlement provides not just for
restoration but for water management goals, including taking steps \"to
reduce or avoid the impacts to all Friant Division long-term contractors
caused by the Restoration flows (including, for example, expanded
groundwater banking).\" Although the MID water bank is not technically
part of the settlement, it is just 6 miles from the San Joaquin River at
Gravelly Ford. Recognizing this interrelationship, the MID Board has
discussed with the Bureau setting aside capacity in the Project for
environmental purposes that could help fulfill goals of the San Joaquin
Restoration.

Two and one-half years ago I appeared before the Water and Power
Subcommittee of the House Committee on Resources to testify on an
earlier draft of the legislation. Since that time, MID has completed the
state environmental review process and expects to issue a final EIS and
complete the federal NEPA process by this fall. We are working
cooperatively with Madera County to ensure that the Project plays a
central role in the region's integrated regional water supply and
management planning. The Bureau of Reclamation has approved a three-year
pilot program to bank San Joaquin River water at Madera Ranch and
awarded MID \$297,000 for the Project under its Water 2025 Challenge
Grant program.

The next step is to finance and build the water bank. Building the
Project requires the improvement of existing water conveyance systems
and canals on the Ranch to deliver water to recharge areas in natural
swales and low spots in the native grazing land. It also requires the
placement of new wells to pump water out of storage when needed. MID
estimates that the total cost of the water bank will be approximately
\$90 million. S. 1473 specifically caps the cost of the Bank at \$90
million for purposes of calculating the federal contribution to the
project. Although the bulk of the project\'s financing will come from
state and local sources, the federal funds authorized by S. 1473 are
critical to MID's ongoing efforts to balance the water needs of MID
users with the Water Bank.

MID is also exploring ways to set aside and protect the Madera Ranch's
native grasslands and habitat, which comprise the largest contiguous
tract of upland habitat in the Central Valley. Of the 13,648 acres, the
Water Supply Enhancement Project will need about 10% of the land for
percolation of water into groundwater storage. The extent to which MID
can achieve its goal to protect the remaining almost 10,000 acres of
native, undeveloped land will depend, in part, upon the extent of public
assistance we receive from the Project.

Thank you again for the invitation to speak with you today about the MID
Water Supply Enhancement Project. Enactment of the Madera Water Supply
and Enhancement Project Act legislation is essential to timely
completion of the Project and will help to ensure the continued flow of
Madera's agricultural products across the nation and around the world.
We urge the Subcommittee to give the legislation prompt and favorable
consideration.