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Anger alone won’t solve the Valley’s water woes

Posted by: Maven on June 29, 2009 at 6:51 am

From the Fresno Bee, this column by Bill McEwen:

It was a warm October night, and the hall on 13th Street in Firebaugh was packed with people. They had come to voice frustration about the “man-made drought,” fallowed land and lost jobs.

That was five years ago. Little has changed. Once-fertile land in the Westlands Water District is ruined by salty irrigation water trapped between the soil surface and layers of clay. Farmers scramble for water. Their deliveries are cut because of below-average rainfall and attempts to protect the delta smelt and salmon.

People, again, are mad as hell about lost jobs, food lines and government indifference to poverty on the west side. And agriculture — along with its political allies — again is writing an angry narrative of fish vs. people.

It’s a sturdy tale, I admit. I’ve fallen for it a time or two. This script reduces a complex situation to black hats and white hats. And it inspires good people to take action on behalf of the hungry and unemployed.

The problem is, life isn’t simple. Anger alone isn’t a solution. And idle delta pumps are only partly responsible for 41% unemployment in a town such as Mendota.

Read more of Bill McEwen’s column in the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

June 29, 2009 · Filed Under San Joaquin Valley

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