Two members of Congress have requested the Authorities Accountability Workplace to evaluation how weak the Bureau of Reclamation is to water theft following a Los Angeles Instances report on an audacious and long-running heist from a federal canal within the Central Valley.
The info associated within the story “elevate severe considerations about how widespread water theft is and what Reclamation can do to stop water theft sooner or later,” Reps. Jarred Huffman (D-San Rafael) and Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote of their letter requesting the evaluation.
The Instances reported that federal prosecutors in 2022 charged the previous normal supervisor of the Panoche Water District, Dennis Falaschi, with involvement in stealing greater than $25 million price of water out of the Delta-Mendota canal over the course of twenty years and promoting it to farmers and different native water districts. In accordance with the allegations within the federal indictment, proceeds that ought to have gone to the federal authorities had been as a substitute used to profit Falaschi, his water district and a small group of co-conspirators.
U.S. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is one among two members of Congress who’ve referred to as for the Authorities Accountability Workplace to evaluation how weak the Bureau of Reclamation is to water theft.
(J. Scott Applewhite / Related Press)
In late Could, Falaschi, 78, pleaded responsible to 1 depend of conspiring to steal water from the federal government and one depend of submitting a false tax return. However within the plea settlement he labored out with prosecutors, Falaschi admitted to stealing lower than $3.5 million price of water.
The federal government contended in its plea settlement with Falaschi that the investigation discovered proof that he “was simply one among a number of people who had been concerned within the misconduct.” The plea settlement additionally contained the allegation that water continued to be stolen after Falaschi left his put up in 2017.
Noting that “a lot of the West relies upon” on the infrastructure of the Bureau of Reclamation to “guarantee environment friendly and dependable water supply,” the congressmen requested the GAO to conduct a evaluation that may take a look at the method for water information monitoring and managing the dangers of loss and theft, information on the quantity and traits of thefts which have occurred previously and challenges the division faces and alternatives for enchancment.
In response to a request for remark, the Bureau of Water Reclamation mentioned in a press release that it has “nothing so as to add.”
Grijalva is the rating member of the Home Committee on Pure Sources. Huffman is the rating member of the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
