Tuesday’s top of the scroll: State needs a full water plan, says editorial

From the Visalia Times-Delta, this editorial:

The biological opinion issued last week by the National Marine Fisheries Services was bad news for the Valley.

Acting in response to a federal judge’s ruling, the fisheries service issued new rules for management of federal water in California and the West. The new rules will require more water to be released into river channels to support fisheries in the Bay delta and the Pacific Ocean. Diversion of water for agriculture from the San Joaquin Valley watershed has nearly wiped out the chinook salmon population and had an effect on marine life that depends on the salmon, such as killer whales.

To family farmers, of course, it sounds again as if the government values fish more than people. The huge California agriculture industry, more than $35 billion, including $5 billion in Tulare County alone, depends on federally subsidized water. Loss of water will mean loss of productivity and loss of jobs. Finding strategies to replace the loss of that water will be important for the Valley.

But Valley water interests must be realistic. They know the trend. They have successively lost each battle over water for the past three decades. The Endangered Species Act will not be repealed, no matter how much conservative Republicans wish it would be. It is unlikely it will be modified sufficiently to make a difference in water policy.

Valley growers have to figure out how to live with increasing environmental restrictions, not fight them. The state needs to have its own water policy that includes all interests.

Read the rest of this editorial from the Visalia Times Delta by clicking here.

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