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The water wars: San Francisco Bay and the delta are dying – Salmon runs are collapsing, droughts are getting worse, and big agriculture still wants more water

Posted by: Maven on September 9, 2009 at 12:36 pm

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

“When arch-conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity decided to weigh in recently on the contentious — and immensely complicated — issue of California water policy, here’s how he summed it up: “Farmers in California are losing their crops, their land, and their livelihood — all because of a two-inch fish!”

Television viewers were treated to scenes of the Central Valley, showing a lush field of crops — followed by a dusty, withered almond orchard that has been cut off from water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. A news anchor informed viewers that the nation’s most productive agricultural lands were “threatened by a small, harmless-looking minnow called the Delta smelt.”

Because a federal judge ordered cutbacks in the amount of water shipped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farms in the valley, a farmer explained on camera, growers have fallen on hard times. After showing a long line stretching around a food bank in the tiny agricultural town of Mendota, the newscasters concluded: “It’s fish versus families, and [the government is] choosing the fish.”

It’s a dramatic portrayal, and the poor farm laborers who are out of work are truly struggling. But it isn’t the fault of a fish.

The state Legislature is now struggling with a series of bills to address a problem that sometimes seems to defy political solution, while agricultural interests — which consume the lion’s share of the state’s water supply — are campaigning aggressively to secure even more water for irrigation. …”

Read more from the San Francisco Bay Guardian by clicking here.

September 9, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Issues

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