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

Michael Fitzgerald column: Lawsuit seeks to halt Delta pumping, “They’re determined to kill the biggest estuary in the Western Americas and pipe a Peripheral Canal around the corpse”

Posted by: Maven on December 5, 2008 at 8:19 am

From Stockton’s Record, this column by Michael Fitzgerald:

The rape/kill of the San Joaquin Delta is unjust and intolerable enough. What is even worse is that it has been done with the blessing of the state.

But a new lawsuit seeks to stop that.

Northern California’s natural heritage is being destroyed for the economic benefit of other regions, making this region’s residents second-class citizens.

And instead of guarding the public trust, the regulatory system cravenly flows toward money, as water is said to do. With regulators like this, who needs violators?

It would be one thing if we could blame this catastrophe on the mid-20th-century mind-set that dams were cool and fish mere obstacles to progress.

But state-of-the art science shows sucking too much water out of the Delta – to say nothing of pumps that make rivers flow backward, and other violent engineering touches – is causing the Delta’s collapse.

Yet in recent years, state and federal agencies charged with guarding the Delta actually increased water exports.

Merely degrading the Delta wasn’t enough. They’re determined to kill the biggest estuary in the Western Americas and pipe a Peripheral Canal around the corpse.

Read more of this commentary by columnist Michael Fitzgerald by clicking here.

December 5, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues

Comments

One Response to “Michael Fitzgerald column: Lawsuit seeks to halt Delta pumping, “They’re determined to kill the biggest estuary in the Western Americas and pipe a Peripheral Canal around the corpse””

  1. Wes on December 5th, 2008 9:11 am

    Mike is about as good as there is regarding the Delta. This editorial comment is about as good as his 2006 labeling of Congressman Richard Pombo as “Taker in Chief”. Pombo lost. Maybe this time the public will win.

Leave a Reply