Congressman Josh Harder on Wednesday vowed to work to stop the Delta Tunnel, secure needed flood protection, and to push for more water storage to address future droughts.

Harder’s remarks at a town hall meeting attended by more than 150 people in French Camp underscores the fact San Joaquín County — that is almost entirely within his district — is ground zero for flooding, drought, and water grab issues given the largest bulk of the Delta is within the county.

The town hall was initially organized by Harder after the Army Corps of Engineers refused to conduct in-person hearings on the environmental document for the tunnel project.

Speaker after speaker said the same thing: Stop the canal. Harder — along with  Congressman John Garamendi who represents Sacramento County — are hoping to do just that with legislation on the federal level that would block required permits from being issued to the State of California to allow the project to proceed.

The two plan to work to garner support for their bill during the current session of Congress.

The environmental report conceded the tunnel will have significant and serious impacts on the Delta environment as well as water quality and even local water supply issues.

But the tunnel isn’t all that was on the minds of attendees. The region’s perennial exposure to flooding and droughts was a hot topic.

“Right now, San Joaquin County is at greater risk of a catastrophic flood than New Orleans was before Hurricane Katrina,” Harder said in his opening remarks. “A recent study said 92% of folks’ homes, 97% of commercial buildings, and 85% of our roads in our county are at risk of flooding. We’re seeing what that looks like right now.”

Harder is pushing to build the Lower San Joaquin River Flood Control plan. It’s a levee and stream system that needs to be updated to protect much the county from French Camp and Stockton north.

The project includes 23 miles of levee improvements and building two new closure structures, one at Fourteen Mile Slough and the other at Smith Canal.
“We’ve secured more than $200 million of federal funds for the project and I’m proud to say we’re finally up and moving on it,” Harder said.

That endeavor is in addition to the 200-year flood upgrades moving forward to protect parts of Lathrop, Manteca and south Stockton as well as French Camp.

Harder also shared his views on the need for more storage to help the region and the state weather future droughts.

“We have a boom and bust system here in the Valley.” Harder said. “What we need to do is store our water better during boom years so we have them during bust years like the droughts we’ve been hit with lately.”

The congressman noted  94% of the water that has flowed since New Year’s Eve through the San Joaquin River Delta hasn’t been caught by the reservoir system.

“It’s gone straight through us and been dumped out into the Pacific Ocean,” Harder pointed out.

Harder said that is because a new water storage project hasn’t been built  in more than 50 years.

“We’re living off of the projects our parents and grandparents gave us with nothing to show for it for ourselves,” he said. “That means our farmers and our whole community gets crushed during a drought year.”

“We need to build new water storage projects across the Valley to make sure we’re keeping our rainwater and snowmelt in a year like this one to use down the road.

Comments made by attendees regarding the Delta Tunnel project will be forwarded by Harder’s staff to the Army Corps of Engineers.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecasbulletin.com