Political Quotes

“February 17, Oroville Dam, California, a 30-foot potential tsunami coming down on the cities of Oroville and further down the river in Marysville and Yuba City. 200,000 people evacuated. Thankfully, the rain did stop and the levee, or the spillway, that had failed did not become a catastrophe. FERC is now in the process of relicensing the dam, and a complete environmental impact statement is now more than a decade over, 2007. However, there have been very significant changes like, you know, maybe the dam could collapse, or the spillway. We know that the river has been further congested with the material that came from the broken spillway. There are serious negative environmental impacts that have resulted from the damaged spillway. The river can't carry the same capacity. It has been silted. Bottom line, it is for these reasons that a failure by FERC to require a supplemental environmental impact statement would be a serious abdication of FERC's responsibility. Unfortunately, a proposed amendment by Mr. LaMalfa, my good Republican colleague, and me to require such a supplemental impact statement was not included in the bill. Nevertheless, my message to FERC is clear: you must do this so that there is full protection and full understanding of the potential impact that this dam will have on communities, our water supply, as well as flooding.”