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The Senate on Thursday approved a $37.5 billion measure to fund energy and water programs next year, the first of the 12 spending bills lawmakers must approve to keep the government operating.

On a vote of 90-8, senators backed the legislation that would fund the Energy Department as well as infrastructure projects administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation. Spending on energy and water programs beginning Oct. 1 would increase by $355 million over current levels.

Supporters said the measure would strengthen U.S. nuclear deterrence, promote energy security and improve flood-control projects nationwide.

California’s tireless water warriors have something fresh to fight over, with the introduction of a bill to resolve an irrigation drainage dispute that affects three modest-sized San Joaquin Valley water districts, as well as the much bigger Westlands Water District.

The bill by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, would relieve the federal government of its duty to provide irrigation drainage, and relieve the water districts of their debt. “We’re trying to solve some water problems here,” Costa said Thursday. His bill covers the San Luis, Panoche and Pacheco water districts, which are north of Westlands.

Customer conservation combined with a surge in water supplies has prompted East Bay Municipal Utility District directors to vote unanimously to end a drought surcharge that has cost the average household about $8 a month for the past year. Directors approved the 25 percent drought surcharge last June, two months after they declared a stage four critical drought and imposed a mandatory 20 percent reduction in water use for the district’s 1.4 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

 

Reading the news earlier this month that Central Valley wildlife refuges were going to receive 100 percent of their federal water allocations would normally have made us thrilled for the Pacific Flyway birds that depend on wetland habitat. And we weren’t surprised to see this news greeted with outrage by those who have been suffering from the drought along with the birds for the past three years.

But we weren’t thrilled because we knew that the news wasn’t true.

While Stanford flaunts its lush lawns and recently restored fountains, nearby communities suffer from dried up wells and arsenic-tainted groundwater. We cannot afford to forget about California’s ongoing drought or to dismiss it as a slight annoyance. In this time of severe and prolonged drought — California’s worst in 1200 years — it is the responsibility of privileged communities, like Stanford, to educate themselves and take action on this issue.

It is critical to recognize that the drought is not just a climate event — it is also inextricably linked to the conversations about racial and economic inequality so prevalent on campus.