James C. Hanks, president of the IID Board of Directors, has issued the following statement on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony of June 14 before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the Colorado River drought and need for short- and long-term drought solutions across the West:

“The current hydrological conditions on the Colorado River, which have entered a third decade of unprecedented drought, are well known and are not going unnoticed.

“Over the past two decades, Imperial Valley growers have been using less water while working to meet the nation’s food supply needs, conserving over 7 million acre-feet in support of the Colorado River and California water supplies. Today’s conservation amounts to nearly 500,000 acre-feet annually.

“While IID is willing to be part of the solution and work cooperatively with our partners, we also believe in upholding the Law of the River and that the burden should not be carried solely by California, and certainly not by IID alone. As we have previously pointed out, transfers or other mechanisms that reallocate water away from California’s Salton Sea will hasten its demise. For this reason, protection of the Sea, while working with others to increase efficiency of water use, will be a necessary precondition for basin-wide Colorado River solutions.

“The sustainability of the Colorado River is critical to the Imperial Valley because it is our only source of water. It supports far more than this rural community as it provides for a robust agricultural industry relied upon by millions of people throughout this nation who take for granted a safe, reliable food supply. We believe that the key to sustaining the Colorado River is collaboration and unity, along with the recognition that urban growth and development are unsustainable without the durable, domestic food supply grown in the basin. We look forward to working on these shared interests to ensure the long-term viability of the river as well as investments in the rapidly declining Salton Sea. And we stand ready to assist.”