Decades of drought in the West has made water quality and quantity a major issue requiring government funding and innovation to fix, members of a U.S. Senate panel said Wednesday. Demand for water in growing municipalities is stretching agricultural and tribal communities, while shrinking availability is leading to higher water prices, witnesses told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Water and Power Subcommittee. … Kyle Jones, the policy and legal director at the advocacy group Community Water Center, told the panel about a woman whose California well ran dry as her husband recovered from open-heart surgery. A new well would have required a $30,000 loan, he said.