Washington, DC – The U.S. Senate today approved the FY’06 Energy and Water Appropriations Conference Report, which includes $40.9 million to strengthen California levees and flood control. The bill, which has already been approved by the House of Representatives now goes to the President for his signature. It also includes $37 million for CALFED and $327 million for the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, important priorities for California .

The following is a floor statement by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) a member of the Conference Committee that developed the final bill:

“Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Conference Report.

One of the most important things about this Conference Report is a program that it does not fund. The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator – also know as the “bunker buster” – is not funded in this bill. I am proud that Congress—for the second year in a row—has stated clearly and unambiguously that we should not spend taxpayer dollars on this program. I hope the Administration gets the message and does not request funding for developing this new generation of nuclear weapons next year.

This Conference Report includes $327 million for the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

This funding means that construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) can continue. When it is completed in a few years, the NIF will help keep the United States’ nuclear weapons stockpile reliable, without facing the dangers of underground nuclear testing.

A completed NIF is a key component of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Stockpile Stewardship Program, whose mission is to maintain the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of our nation's nuclear stockpile.

There are also many California-specific needs met in this bill.

I am pleased that the Conference Report provides $37 million for the federal-state partnership for California Bay-Delta Restoration (CALFED). The CALFED Reauthorization took considerable effort on the part of many in Congress, but that effort has paid off, in this, the first authorized CALFED appropriations in five years. I am grateful to Senator Domenici and Senator Reid for providing $2 million over the President’s Budget request for this program in the Senate bill and I am pleased that this allocation was maintained in Conference with the House.

These funds will contribute to the much needed improvement of California’s water supply infrastructure and protection of aquatic ecosystems. Among the elements of a balanced CALFED program that are in progress are the enlargement of several reservoirs, improved water conveyance, ecosystem restoration, and water quality projects. The improvements we make to California’s water infrastructure now will head off a supply crisis with water, similar to the one we faced with energy a few years ago.

This Conference Report includes funding for specific flood control priorities in California . My State faces a number of significant flood threats. The City of Sacramento , the surrounding areas like Marysville and Rancho Cordova , and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta face some of the greatest flood danger in the Nation. Currently, much of Sacramento is below 100-year flood protection. This legislation allocates $39 million to improve flood control in Sacramento and provides nearly $2 million in additional funding to ensure that other regional flood control projects are ready to go to construction next year.

While the funds in this bill are a good start, I will continue to seek additional funding to protect the Sacramento metropolitan area from catastrophic flooding.

The Conference Report also includes $5 million for Upper Newport Bay Restoration. Upper Newport Bay is the largest functioning full tidal wetland in Southern California. However, the Bay’s ability to sustain wildlife is threatened due to decades of increasing sedimentation related to rapid urbanization of the watershed. As a result, open water areas are disappearing in the Bay, tidal circulation has diminished, and shoaling is occurring within Federal and local navigation channels and slips. This project will restore degraded habitat and reestablish wetland and wildlife habitat areas.

I am also pleased that the Conference Report includes $61.65 million, $11.65 million above the President’s Budget request, for the Santa Ana River Mainstem Project. These funds will construct flood control improvements to protect over 3 million people in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

One issue that concerns me in this Conference Report is a requirement for the Bureau of Reclamation to complete a special report to update the analysis of costs and associated benefits of the Auburn Dam on the American River. While I withhold judgment on the merits of this dam, I am concerned that the reporting requirements do not include a study of the geological factors that caused the termination of work on the Auburn Dam in 1975.

I am including a colloquy between myself, Senator Reid, and Chairman Domenici, on this issue of the Auburn Dam report, and request that it be placed at the appropriate place in the Record.

I again want to express my congratulations to Chairman Domenici and Senator Reid and want to thank them for the level of support given to California in this Conference Report.”

The following is a listing of some of the most important projects funded by this bill:

Sacramento and Delta Levees and Flood Control:

• $15 million for American River Watershed -- Folsom Dam Mini Raise
• $9.555 million for American River Watershed -- Folsom Dam Modifications
• $4.405 million for American River Watershed -- Common Features
• $3.75 million for South Sacramento County Streams
• $6.3 million for Sacramento River Bank Protection
• $1.2 million for the Yuba River Basin
• $500,000 for short-term Delta levee assessment (CALFED 180-day study)
• $250,000 for a Delta Islands and levee feasibility study

CALFED:

• $4 million for the Upper San Joaquin Storage Study
• $300,000 for the Sites Reservoir Storage Study
• $4 million for the Shasta Enlargement Study
• $3.2 million for the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion Study
• $8.3 million for the Environmental Water Account
• $2.5 million for Ecosystem Restoration
• $2 million for the San Luis Reservoir Low Point Study
• $1 million for the Interagency Ecological Program
• $1.65 million for Westside Drainage and Salinity Reduction in the San Joaquin River

In addition, the following important water supply projects were funded:

• $13 million for the Hamilton Airfield Wetlands Restoration
• $2.25 for the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System (as compared to $1.25 million in the President’s budget request)
• $2.1 million for the Calleguas Water Recycling Project (as compared to $1.35 million in the President’s budget request)
• $1.875 million for the North San Diego County Area Water Recycling Project (as compared to $1.25 million in the President’s budget request)
• $1.25 million for the Long Beach Desalination Project
• $622,000 for the Long Beach Water Reclamation and Reuse Project
• $422,000 for the San Jose Area Water Reclamation and Reuse Project (as compared to $300,000 in the President’s budget request)
• $250,000 for the Hamilton City Flood Control and Habitat Restoration
• $150,000 for the Mission Springs Water Reuse Project
• $77,000 for the Pasadena Reclaimed Water Project

Other Bureau of Reclamation projects funded in the bill include:

• $3 million for Lake Tahoe Regional Wetlands (as compared to $100,00 in the President’s budget request)
• $52.219 million for the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund
• $4.828 million for the Salton Sea Research Project
• $4.177 million for the Solano Project
• $3.35 million for the San Diego Area Water Reclamation and Reuse Program
• $1.78 million for the Cachuma Project
• $1.27 for the Orland Project
• $766,000 for the Southern California Investigations Program
• $570,000 for the Ventura River Project
• $120,000 for the Napa-Sonoma-Marin Agricultural Reuse Project

Army Corps of Engineers (Partial List):

The Army Corps of Engineers projects in California (other than the CALFED projects listed above) that are funded in the bill include:

Preliminary Study and Design (General Investigations)

• $600,000 for the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Study, South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
• $125,000 for the Humboldt Bay Long-Term Shoal Management Study
• $125,000 for the Inglewood Transmission Pipelines
• $80,000 for the Norwalk Central Transmission Main
• $175,000 for the Morro Bay Estuary
• $850,000 for the Los Angeles County Regional Dredged Materials Management Plan
• $100,000 for the Carpinteria Beach Shoreline Study
• $800,000 for the Matilija Dam Removal
• $860,000 million for the Tahoe Basin
• $500,000 for Tahoe Regional Planning

Construction

• $3 million for the San Ramon Valley Water Recycling Project
• $5 million for the Upper Newport Bay Harbor Restoration
• $48 million for the Oakland Harbor 50 Foot Navigation Improvement
• $2.7 million for the Port of Los Angeles Channel Deepening
• $900,000 for the Bascule Bridge Replacement in West Sacramento
• $12 million for Napa River Flood Control
• $350,000 for the York Creek Dam Removal
• $3.75 million for Murrieta Creek Flood Control
• $8 million for Dam Safety at Success Dam, Tule River
• $5 million for Stockton Metropolitan Flood Control Reimbursement
• $3.5 million for the Upper Guadalupe River
• $3.6 million for Tahoe Basin Restoration
• $4.3 million for Kaweah River

Operations and Maintenance

• $450,000 for Port San Luis Harbor Breakwater Repair
• $3.676 million for Coyote Valley Dam, Lake Mendocino
• $4.562 million for Humboldt Harbor and Bay
• $675,000 for the San Leandro Jack D. Maltester Channel
• $900,000 for Marina Del Rey
• $225,000 for the Pinole Shoal Management Study
• $4.47 million for Redwood City Harbor
• $2.511 million for Sacramento River (30 foot project)
• $1.44 million for San Francisco Bay Management Study
• $4.619 million for Suisun Bay Channel

Environmental Infrastructure

• $3 million for the Harbor/South Bay Recycling Project
• $2.1 million for Oyster Point Marina Breakwater Reconfiguration

Department of Energy

• Department of Energy projects in California that were funded in the bill include:
• $5 million for Renewable Energy Production Incentives
• $83 million for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Coherent Light Source Project
• $7 million for the UCLA Institute for Molecular Medicine
• $750,000 for new equipment at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• $750,000 for a PET/CT Fusion Imaging System at California Hospital Medical Center
• $500,000 for St. Mary’s Cancer Center , Long Beach
• $400,000 for new equipment at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital