State must rescue delta from crisis, says Representative Martinez & State Senator Wolk

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez and State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis:

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of the Americas, is in crisis. Multiple species of fish are in rapid decline. First the delta smelt, and then the steelhead and salmon that once migrated through the estuary by the tens of thousands. Now, even the orcas that feed on the salmon are threatened. The dominoes are falling every day.

This crisis didn’t happen overnight. It came after years of mismanagement by the federal and state water and wildlife agencies that ignored what the science was telling them and resisted new realities about climate change.

Fortunately, change in Washington is giving Californians new opportunities to rescue our delta from the failed policies of the past. With a new administration committed to sustainable energy and environmental policy, it is time to form a new state-federal-local partnership to save the delta.

We need this vital region – its ecosystem and its economy – to thrive. Working together, we can use new tools to meet our clean water needs, overhaul the responsible agencies, and implement a new management plan that is grounded in science – and gets results.

But first we must realize that there are no silver bullets that will solve all of California’s water woes. Suspending the federal Endangered Species Act certainly won’t do it. Nor will sprinting to commit billions of taxpayer dollars to dig a water supply ditch the size of the Panama Canal around the delta.

Read the rest of this commentary by clicking here.

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