Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Delta smelt Category
Click here to view all posts

Commentary: Little fish takes big bite; are you paying a “Delta smelt tax” yet?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 15, 2009 at 9:53 am

From the Orange County Register, this commentary by Harold Johnson, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation:

“Are you paying a “Delta smelt tax” yet?

You are, or might be before long, if you live in one of the 28 Orange County cities or water districts with ties to Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District, which gets water, in part, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta smelt is a pinky-size fish listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. In a controversial strategy to keep the smelt’s numbers from evaporating, federal officials ordered dramatic cutbacks in the pumping of water from the Delta to central and Southern California.

Pumping less means upping water rates for millions of Californians – hence, a Delta smelt “tax.”

“The [feds'] environmental decision has impacted the flow of water to Southern California by approximately 35 percent,” Garden Grove water services manager David Entsminger told the Register’s Teri Sforza in June. Garden Grove residents’ water rates went up 19.7 percent at the beginning of September. …”

Read more of Harold Johnson’s commentary by clicking here.

November 15, 2009 · Filed Under Delta smelt

Comments

One Response to “Commentary: Little fish takes big bite; are you paying a “Delta smelt tax” yet?”

  1. Wes Rolle on November 15th, 2009 10:07 am

    Oh, yes… the Pacific Legal Foundation. I wonder if I bill myself as the Sensible Water Use Foundation could I also get automatic entre to the pages of the press?

    Though I must say that Johnson has a way with words, labeling every cost as a “tax” in an unabashedly Libertarian paper like the Register is a good move. However, he neglects to consider that costs (taxes?) we will need to pay for our failures to heed what nature tells us… that we are all on this planet together and the fate of the delta smelt may just become the fate of us all.

Leave a Reply