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Environmentalists dispute water shortage = job loss claims

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2009 at 7:11 am

From the Central Valley Business Times:

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance says that blaming Central Valley job losses on claims of water shortages is disingenuous at best.

“The truth is more water won’t wash away the Valley’s recession and endangered species are the victims, not the problem,” says CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings.

Referring to Sunday’s Fresno town hall meeting by Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Valley congressmen and others, Mr. Jennings says “we hope Secretary Salazar will seek out the facts and see through the transparent efforts by Governor Schwarzenegger, Valley elected officials and the hydrologic brotherhood to use the red-herring of economic recession as justification for depriving the Delta of essential water.”

Read more from the Central Valley Business Times by clicking here.

June 29, 2009 · Filed Under Agriculture, San Joaquin Valley

Comments

One Response to “Environmentalists dispute water shortage = job loss claims”

  1. dfb on June 29th, 2009 12:11 pm

    Based on a post at Aquanomics, it appears CSPA is likely correct about the employment claims — the economy is as much to blame as the drought.

    http://aguanomics.com/2009/05/simulations-vs-reality.html
    “According to California’s Employment Development Department [XLS], year-on-year farm employment (April 2008 to April 2009) is up by 4,900 (or 8.7%) in the eight south of Delta counties.* For the entire State, it’s up by 9,400 (2.5%). Against two and three years ago, the numbers are also up.

    Put differently, there is no sign of 60,000-80,000 lost jobs. (Non-farm employment is MUCH worse, down 31,000 in the eight counties and 687,000 for the entire State.)”

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