Statement of Honorable Ronald Reagan, Governor of California

Before the Public Works Subcommittee, Committee of Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives

May 4, 1967

Presented by Edgar Gillenwaters, Deputy Director of Finance, State of California

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee: Ordinarily when the California witnesses appear before you on behalf of appropriations for flood control and reclamation projects, we are clearing up debris from a severe winter flood, or are preparing for an unusually dry summer. This year is different, typical of California weather. We had one of the driest Februarys on record and were beginning to worry about water supplies when March storms brought the snowpack and streamflow up to about normal. Someone, however, forgot to turn the faucet off and the rain and extremely heavy mountain snowfall continued through March and right up to the end of April. Reservoirs are almost full, and we have almost a 200 percent of normal snowpack waiting for warm weather and the snowmelt season. We just have no place to put the water and we anticipate some real problems with agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley.

All of this is just another way of highlighting California’s need for continuing development of flood control and water storage projects, and in the manner in which the federal projects fit in with scores of others being built by state and local agencies.

I fully endorse the program which will be presented to you in some detail by the Director of Water Resources and the Chairman of the California Water Commission, as well as by many witnesses from local agencies. It is a sound program, a necessary program, and one which is realistic. It has full support of all parts of California.