Permitting Reform Can't Wait: Speed Up Water Projects for California and the Nation

A persistent message from constituents in California’s Central Valley is a loss of confidence in government’s ability to do big things — not only to propose bold solutions, but to implement them. Whether the issue is housing, energy, or water, too many critical projects are stuck in protracted review cycles that prevent timely delivery at the scale communities need.

Why this matters here and now

In the Central Valley, growers, disadvantaged communities, and wildlife depend on reliable water supplies and modern conveyance systems. The region’s needs require ambitious, practical investments in conveyance, groundwater recharge, and storage. Yet many worthy proposals stall in paperwork for years, even decades.

That wasn’t always the case. The Central Valley’s modern shape was created by bold state and federal projects that moved quickly. Consider the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant, a key element of the Central Valley Project: it lifts water into the Delta-Mendota Canal and supplies roughly three million acre-feet of water each year to 32 water districts through a 117-mile aqueduct. Planning and construction began in 1947, and the system was operational just four years later. Today, a comparable project would likely not clear initial planning in that time.

One local example: Los Banos Creek

The Los Banos Creek Detention Project in western Merced County illustrates the problem. First proposed in 2012, this plan to modernize a 1960s-era flood-control reservoir would expand its role to include active water storage, groundwater recharge, and conveyance improvements — bolstering reliability for farms, wildlife refuges, and disadvantaged communities while reducing flood risk. Backed by local water districts and federal partners, it is exactly the kind of multi-benefit project we should deliver quickly.

Instead, the proposal advanced through separate review tracks at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Water Resources, and the State Water Resources Control Board, layered on top of numerous conceptual, environmental, operational, and design reviews along with repeated public hearings. Although construction has begun — a welcome development — a project expected to take roughly six months to build should not require more than a decade of paperwork before ground is broken.

The root cause: process, not protection

Yes, market forces like high interest rates and rising construction costs matter. But a large part of the problem is self-inflicted: overlapping, duplicative reviews; parallel federal and state processes that examine the same issues; and procedural opportunities that reward delay. Those factors stretch timelines, drive up costs, increase uncertainty, and give opponents an incentive to "litigate the clock" until projects die from delay — often without improving environmental outcomes.

Practical, bipartisan reforms

We can preserve essential safety and environmental protections while restoring predictability and speed. Meaningful, bipartisan reforms should include:

• Clear, enforceable timelines for environmental reviews and permit decisions — measured in months, not years.
• A single coordinated review led by one designated federal agency to prevent redundant, parallel tracks.
• Reasonable limits on delay tactics and predictable windows for legal challenges so delay is not a cost-free strategy to block projects.
• Investments in agency capacity — digital permitting systems, expanded staff, and modern tools that improve transparency and accountability.

These steps would reduce uncertainty, save taxpayer dollars, and make it more likely that sound, multi-benefit projects get built on a timeline that matches the urgency of the problems they address.

A bipartisan path forward

Reforming permitting is one of the rare areas where both parties often agree on the problem and can agree on solutions. By fixing processes — not protections — Congress and state governments can restore trust, strengthen the economy, and deliver infrastructure that protects families, farms, and the environment.

Adam Gray represents California’s 13th Congressional District.