Fresno Group Returns from D.C. Feeling Positive, Hopeful

A 24 member Fresno County delegation has returned from Washington D.C. feeling a familiar combination of frustration and hope.  The group journeyed to the capital, hoping to find promises of water from politicians familiar with the California drought.

"The problem is, everyone’s hand are tied because of Endangered Species Act, which has regulations in it to protect the Delta Smelt and Salmon," says Tony Boren with the Fresno Council of Governments.

 "It is what it is," he says.  "And the regulatory agencies don’t want to provide any flexibility because they’re afraid of lawsuits from environmental groups."

But Boren also says he heard plenty of positive encouragement– from the White House to the Departments of the Interior and Commerce to the Capitol Building, where he says California politicians are on his side.

"I think Senator Feinstein was definitely willing to go to bat for us," Boren says.  "(She) pledged some follow up action to help us with that situation."

The delegation hope to convince regulators to ease restrictions enough to allow some water now being kept up north for environmental reasons to be released into the valley.  The Friant Water Authority’s Mario Santoyo also made the trip, and says progress was also made in the Temperance Flat water storage project, a large dam planned above Millerton Lake.

"We had that discussion with the White House," Santoyo says, "and everybody seemed to be in favor of moving that project forward."

Overall, the two say the usual environmental hurdles remain, but political opinion may be shifting to their liking.

"There is some light at the end of the tunnel," Santoyo says.  "We just have to keep pushing forward.  So no one should give up yet."