Borgeas ‘Cautiously’ Praises Drought Declaration
Sonora, CA — We reported earlier that Tuolumne, Calaveras and 37 other counties have now received a “declaration of drought” from Governor Gavin Newsom.
It will allow for the relaxation of certain regulatory restraints to help meet water supply needs.
Mother Lode District Eight Senator Andreas Borgeas, chairman of the state’s Agriculture Committee, responds, “For weeks our bipartisan coalition of county and state leaders in the San Joaquin Valley have urged Governor Newsom to declare a drought emergency in order to ease regulatory restrictions to allow for the transfer of water to our agricultural communities.”
He adds, “Our bipartisan coalition, and the five counties that declared local emergencies, are cautiously grateful that the Governor has declared a state of emergency. We respectfully caution the administration, and the divisions of the state executing this declaration, that these emergency policies not be poisoned with divisive provisions or unnecessarily inflate the authority of bureaucratic agencies, and that it should be tailored to our pressing agricultural needs.”
