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Thousands rally for water supply solutions

Posted by: Maven on April 22, 2009 at 8:03 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

Chanting “We need water. We need water,” about 8,000 people gathered last Friday on the shores of the San Luis Reservoir, the nation’s largest off-stream water storage facility, to demand immediate solutions to the state’s ongoing water disaster. With a capacity of 2 million acre-feet, the half-filled reservoir served as a backdrop for the event.

Those who made the long trek to the rally site included farmers, farm employees, families, business owners and elected officials. Speakers said the event, organized by the Latino Water Coalition, aimed to put a public face on the disaster unfolding in the San Joaquin Valley, which is being hit hard by the drought, as well as by legal decisions and regulatory restrictions limiting operation of state and federal pumping facilities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect endangered species, including delta smelt.

Thousands of farm acres have been fallowed, there’s uncertainty about how permanent crops will be kept alive through the summer and unemployment in some farming communities is estimated at 40 to 50 percent.

California Farm Bureau Federation President Doug Mosebar, center, joined the more than 8,000 people last week at the Latino Water Coalition water rally at San Luis Reservoir. California Women for Agriculture President Diana Westmoreland Pedrozo, right, holds a sign calling for the delta pumps to be turned on for water deliveries.

State water deliveries to valley farms this summer will total only 30 percent of contract amount, while federal water deliveries for farmers south of the delta currently are at zero.

Both water delivery systems rely on the San Luis Reservoir to store water for later delivery to about 25 million Californians, as well as farms and wildlife. More than 4,000 people braved blowing dust to march Tuesday from Mendota to Firebaugh, launching a four-day campaign to focus attention on the valley’s crippling water shortage.

Looking over a sea of blue T-shirts on Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “Today is about more than politics. It’s about jobs, schools, families, livelihoods, the environment—the entire economy of the Central Valley and the state.”

Breaking from his remarks, the governor struck up the chant from the crowd again, “We need water. We need water.”

Read more from the California Farm Bureau Federation by clicking here.

April 22, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, San Joaquin Valley

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