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Valley demonstrators march for water

Posted by: Maven on April 15, 2009 at 8:45 am

From the Contra Costa Times:

Thousands of farmworkers and their supporters marched along a dusty highway Tuesday through a region hard hit by drought to demand more Delta water.

Beginning in Mendota, an agricultural hamlet where the water shortage is acutely felt and the unemployment rate is estimated at 40 percent, the scene was reminiscent of a civil-rights protest as politicians, farmworkers and comedian Paul Rodriguez railed against environmental rules they said were depriving them of water.

“We have a deep recession throughout this country and this state,” said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno. “Here, it’s a Depression.” Their ire was directed mostly at Delta smelt, a 3-inch fish whose precipitous decline has triggered tougher environmental protection rules.

Rodriguez complained that for too long the public has heard more about “the snail darter, the spotted owl and the Delta smelt,” instead of the plight of hardworking farmers whose water supplies have been cut.

Thousands roared in approval and began chanting “Water, water,” after Rodriguez told them, “We’re not going to stop until we open those pumps at San Luis Reservoir,” the destination of the four-day march scheduled to conclude Friday with an address by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

Many of the marchers are wearing blue T-shirts that say “No water, no work, no life.” From the Fresno Bee:

Marchers called for the federal government to ease the Endangered Species Act to allow more water through the delta and to Valley farms. They are also calling for a more comprehensive water plan and federal assistance to those in agriculture facing hardships.

Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, said that unless state and local government come up with a sensible plan, rural communities that depend on the farming economy will be in peril.

“The environmentalists are concerned about a fish because it is an endangered species,” Arambula said before the march began. “But the people of Mendota are also an endangered species if we don’t get any water.”

Farmworker Maria Ortiz of Mendota is among those having a tough time. She and her husband have worked sporadically in the last several months, and they have fallen behind on their monthly bills. She barely manages to make her $900 a month rent payment, leaving little money for anything else.

“I don’t think people really know how hard it is for some of us right now,” said Ortiz at the end of Tuesday’s eight mile march. “We marched today because we want people to know that the farmers need the water, and without it, no one will be able to survive.”

You can read the full text of the Fresno Bee article by clicking here.

Laura King Moon of the State Water Contractors issued this statement:

“As public water agencies, we take our responsibility to provide Californians with adequate and dependable water supplies very seriously. But, the drought and the many new regulations and court orders imposed upon us have made it difficult or impossible to meet that duty. We empathize with and thank those who are marching this week. They are a graphic illustration of the human consequences of not addressing California’s deteriorating water supply system.

For decades, the public water agencies throughout the state that serve water to farms, families and businesses have implemented water conservation efforts, water recycling and groundwater recharge projects, and a myriad of other programs with twin goals of providing adequate water supplies for Californians and protecting our natural resources. These programs are very successful and, in most years, extend California’s water supply to meet its needs but, the compounded effects of a multi-year drought and new regulatory restrictions have slashed our water supply. So, it is impossible to conserve or recycle what you now don’t have. The time is now – the state’s primary water delivery system must be upgraded in a way that provides the water we need and also protects local communities and our delicate ecosystems.

We wish the marchers safety in their journey to San Luis Reservoir and success in raising state and national awareness of the severe water shortage that affects us all.”

Full text of the press release from PRNewsire by clicking here.

The On the Public Record blog has some thoughts on the march (and ending ag subsidies) in this post:

I have to assume that to the marchers it feels like a meaningful protest that will draw attention and aid, but I can’t see how it will work. The primary problem is that they are asking for the wrong remedy. Specifically what they want is to lift the ESA restrictions on the pumps that protect salmon and smelt. I don’t really have much claim on Chavez’s legacy, but I have to say that it breaks my heart a little to have farmworkers using his tactics to shift the drought burden to the only entities in our water system that are suffering worse (farmworkers have it bad, but they are not physically ground to pieces by the pumps) and have less voice or capacity to escape the consequences of drought (fish, however, must be in drying rivers and cannot move to another).

That aside, this march doesn’t pressure anyone who can respond. In Chavez’s original marches, farmworkers and boycotts could pressure growers for better wages and working conditions. Those improvements were something that growers could give, or legislators could legally require. But knowingly breaking the ESA as a result of this march? Who could do that? Pres. Obama could call a God Squad, which I hope he doesn’t do. A judge or the state legislature could try, but the resulting litigation would last longer than this growing season. The Department of Fish and Game could reverse all their findings that this pumping regime kills fish that are already nearly extinct, but that would require some pretty surprising new scientific studies. So long as the ESA holds, we can’t do what farmworkers are marching for, which is to send more water to the farms that would employ those farmworkers.

Read more from the On the Public Record blog by clicking here.

April 15, 2009 · Filed Under Agriculture, Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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