President Donald Trump signed new water delivery rules on Wednesday afternoon during his visit to Bakersfield to speak with local farmers and ranchers about the issues facing agriculture in California. Thousands of people were in attendance to hear President Trump speak to the water management issues in California and how he plans to address them.
“After decades of failure and delays in ensuring critical water access for the people of the state, we are determined to finally get your problems solved,” President Trump said during his address to the crowd. “For too long authorities have needlessly flushed millions, and millions of gallons of fresh, beautiful, clean water from up north straight into the Pacific Ocean.”
President Trump signed the Record of Decision from the Department of the Interior which finalizes the new biological opinions which will allow additional water to flow through the Delta to southern regions in California. “It’s going to give you a lot of water, and a lot of dams, and a lot of everything. You’ll be able to farm your land,” President Trump noted.
The new federal biological opinions will alter how water is managed as part of the Central Valley Project, using new real-time monitoring methods to dictate water flows. Prior to signing the new water delivery rules, President Trump reiterated the promise that he made to farmers during his campaign in 2016, to address the critical issues for the agricultural industry with water being top of mind for most California farmers.
“On top of regulatory failures, California’s not built any major water storage infrastructure since 1979 even as the state’s population has increased by nearly 70 percent,” said President Trump. “With today’s actions, we will help bring farmland back to life.”
President Trump also highlighted the other recent developments that should help farmers moving forward, such as the Phase One agreement with China, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as inroads made with Japan and South Korea. “Under the previous Administration, net farm income plummeted by 20 percent and under my Administration net farm income has increased by over 50 percent,” President Trump explained.
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