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February 22, 2010 |
Vallejo Times |
Editorial: Feinstein must heed the call
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's attempt to regulate by federal fiat the Delta water allocations to the Central Valley is wrong-headed and she should withdraw the proposal, as recommended by a coalition of congressional representatives.
Solano County's representatives, George Miller and John Garamendi, were among 11 West Coast legislators who asked the senator to back away from her plan to amend a jobs bill to allow Central Valley farmers to receive up to 40 percent of their federal water allocations during the next two years. Last year, those farmers received only 10 percent of their allocations, which has idled some farmland and pushed up unemployment among agricultural workers.
There is no doubt that the Central Valley agricultural industry is suffering. But so is the fishing industry in Northern California and Oregon, which estimates it has lost 23,000 jobs because of the repeated cancellation of salmon season. The collapse of the chinook salmon population -- fewer than 40,000 returned to the Sacramento River this year, down from more than 750,000 in 2002 -- has been linked, in part, to too much water being diverted out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
No matter how much farmers want to blame their situation on regulations that protect Delta smelt and salmon, the fact remains that most of their water cuts have been a direct results of the drought that has gripped the state for three years. Federal legislation will not change that situation.
But Mother Nature might. A series of winter storms since the first of the year has already done a lot to raise reservoir water levels. If El Niño conditions continue, the drought may be declared over this spring. That would make Sen. Feinstein's legislation unnecessary.
Sen. Feinstein may have her reasons for siding with farmers over fishers, but those working on solutions for repairing the Delta and sharing the water see no reason to pit one against the other.
As Reps. Miller, Garamendi and the others rightly point out, the senator's amendment undercuts California's ongoing process to bring all of the stakeholders to the table and work out a solution to what ails the Delta. "The state's legislative package was based on the principle that a reliable water supply and a restored natural ecosystem need not be in conflict," the representatives told Feinstein. "By increasing water withdrawals from the Bay-Delta regardless of the effect on threatened and endangered fisheries, your draft amendment risks undoing the agreements that led to this comprehensive plan."
Sen. Feinstein should back off and let Delta stakeholders -- and Mother Nature -- do their jobs.