As 14 large wildfires burn in California and the drought continues, two California members of Congress are working respectively to help the state combat both.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has filed a bill that would allocate $1.3 billion over the next 10 years to desalination, storage, and other water projects. Meanwhile, Burbank Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff says he and other members of California’s Congressional Delegation are looking into drone mitigation technology that would prevent drones from being operated in a way that interferes with first responders.
Firefighters battling wildfires in the San Bernardino National Forest and elsewhere have been plagued by people flying drones in the area where they’re working. All this comes on the same day the State Water Board is set to release data from June on whether water districts are meeting their respective cutback levels. It will be a strong indicator of the progress many Southern California communities have made since the cutbacks were mandated, and certainly will light a fire under any water districts that are falling behind in conservation.
Today, we’ll check in with Cal Fire’s director on the wildfire fighting effort, talk to Congressman Adam Schiff about keeping drones out of first responders’ way with ‘geo-fencing,’ and talk with the managers at several water districts across the South Coast about how they’re doing with meeting the mandated cutback levels.
California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014
Guests:
Chief Ken Pimlott, Director, Cal Fire
Rep. Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman for California’s 28th District (Stretching from West Hollywood to the eastern border of Pasadena, and from Echo Park to the Angeles National Forest) and a member of the House Appropriations Committee
Joe Del Bosque, farmer and owner of Del Bosque Farms in the city of Firebaugh in Fresno County
Doug Obegi, Water Program staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Steve Gregory, KPCC environment and science editor
Tom Tait, director of Public Works Services for the City of Arcadia
Chad Blais, Deputy Director of Public Works, City of Compton
Joe Berg, Director of Water Use Efficiency for the Municipal Water District of Orange County