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Governor directs more aid to state’s water-short areas

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 3, 2009 at 7:37 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

After meeting with farmers and elected officials from the western San Joaquin Valley, Gov. Schwarzenegger took action to bring additional relief to the parched region.

The governor asked President Obama to issue a federal disaster declaration for Fresno County and signed an executive order that he said would result in the distribution of $3 million to $4 million a month in emergency food and unemployment assistance for areas wracked by water shortages.

Speaking at a news conference in Mendota last week, Schwarzenegger also expressed support for a proposed, temporary project that could increase the reliability of water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and he reiterated his commitment to securing a comprehensive water plan for California.

“I will fight, fight, fight and do everything I can to create the immediate water that is needed,” Schwarzenegger said, “and also the infrastructure for water.”

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

July 3, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

Comments

One Response to “Governor directs more aid to state’s water-short areas”

  1. Delta.wildrose on July 3rd, 2009 11:10 am

    It would be nice if the office of the Governor could get their facts straight. First of all the 41% unemployment rate in Mendota is NOT due to the lack of water, in fact, agriculture related employment is up…the higher unemployment rate in that area is due to the fall in the housing/construction sector, which also relies heavily on migrant/hispanic workers as well.

    Also, this isn’t a fish vs. people issue, this is a people/small family farmer vs. Large agribusiness issue. The fish are collateral damage to the greediness of corporate agribusiness hell bent or irrigating toxic polluted land that was never intended to be farmed in the first place.

    Thirdly, while the state is in a 3rd dry year, we are NOT in a drought, if you lived in California in the late 70’s THAT WAS A DROUGHT. What we have here is a ‘regulatory drought’. What does that mean??? It means DWR and CVP mismanaged our water resources. They also drained Oroville Dam and some of Folsom Dam to fill up the new Diamond Lake in southern California last year.

    The fish have been dieing as a direct result of more ammonia being dumped into the river from the municipalities up and down the Sacramento River. Not to mention, the fact that not enough cold water has been held back to be released for the salmon, etc.

    It is my belief that until we take care of the pollution, water storage and release measures in the North as well as utilizing our advanced technology to keep the fish out of the pumps there should NOT be any type of peripheral canal, nor should there be any means to pump more fresh water out of the Sacramento/San Joaquin rivers and San Francisco Bay estuary to flush down to southern California to further line the pockets of multi-billionaires and the corporate agriculture interests. Especially at the expense of the native species and residents of Northern California, from Sacramento/San Joaquin counties to the Oregon border, from the Nevada border to the Pacific Ocean.

    There are more areas of responsibility than just Westlands Water District, et al that the governor’s office has the legal responsibility of representing and addressing, and that includes at the expense of the gold-lined pockets that put his incompetent foreigner in office (that’s another rant for any good Patriot!).

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