On Tuesday, California House Republican Rep. David Valadao introduced a bill (H.R. 4366) to approve a controversial settlement between the nation's largest agricultural water district and the Justice Department. H.R. 4366 would approve an agreement proposed last year to settle long-standing claims against the U.S. Department of Interior for its management of water deliveries that led to toxic irrigation runoff in California's main water delivery hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Under the agreement, filed in September 2015 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Westlands will assume responsibility for its drainage issues and drop its suit against the Department of Interior in exchange for forgiveness of its outstanding debt from the construction of the Central Valley Project (CVP) itself – a value of about $350 million. Westlands is also agreeing to retire at least 100,000 acres of salty farmland and reduce its contractual water deliveries from the CVP by 25 percent to 890,000 acre-feet per year, but it will receive an upgrade to a permanent contract, rather than one that has to be renewed every two years. Rep. Valadao stated that the legislation would save taxpayers up to $3.5 billion in potential legal liabilities.