Anna Eshoo: “first all my thanks to Representative George Miller for his leadership and vision for sponsoring this legislation which…”

“first all my thanks to Representative George Miller for his leadership and vision for sponsoring this legislation which I'm proud to be an original cosponsor of. The legislation authorizes a total of seven new projects, including two in my district: the Mountain View Moffett Area Recycled Water Distribution Project and the Redwood City Recycled Water Project. Since the 1990's a partnership of 17 local Bay Area governments, water, and wastewater agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the California Department of Water Resources have worked to maximize water recycling around the Bay under the auspices of the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program (BARWRP). They have been found by the Bureau of Reclamation to be feasible or close to achieving feasibility, and they're now ready to move into construction with significant local funding commitments consistent with the Bureau of Reclamation's Title XVI water recycling program. Under the bill, the federal government may provide up to 25% of the cost of the planning, designing, and building each project, and the local sponsors will be responsible for securing at least 75 percent. Despite the significant investments that communities have already made to these projects, they have not been able to secure federal funds because of a lack of investment by the Bureau of Reclamation in the Title XVI program and because of a lack of a specific Congressional authorization for these projects.”