On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 1:39 AM, Steven Robinson <srobin21 at comcast.net>wrote:
> Feinstein proposes Central Valley water plan
>
> By Carolyn Lochhead
> San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau
> Friday, February 12, 2010
>
> Washington - -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein ignited a firestorm among fellow
> California Democrats on Thursday as word spread of her proposal to divert
> Northern California water to Central Valley farmers.
>
> Feinstein wants to attach the proposal as an amendment to a fast-tracked
> Senate jobs bill. She is pitching the plan as a jobs measure to address the
> economic calamity in the Central Valley. It would increase farm water
> allocations from 10 percent last year to 40 percent this year and next, an
> amount that farmers say is the bare minimum they need.
>
> Bay Area Democrats were livid, accusing Feinstein of concocting the plan in
> secret, upending fragile water negotiations that Feinstein has supported
> and
> pitting California's Central Valley against its coast. Telephone calls flew
> as lawmakers learned of Feinstein's plan.
>
> "I was pretty shocked," said Rep. Mike Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat and
> ally of North Coast salmon fishermen who support efforts to save fish
> species that are declining. Influential farmer
>
> Feinstein has long supported California agriculture but began to weigh in
> on
> the side of farmers in the water wars after requests from Stewart Resnick,
> the well-connected owner of Paramount Farms, which grows citrus and nuts on
> 118,000 acres in Kern County.
>
> In September, Resnick wrote Feinstein complaining that "sloppy science" by
> federal wildlife agencies was causing farm water shortages. A week later,
> Feinstein forwarded the letter to Obama administration officials, who
> authorized a review by the National Academy of Sciences.
>
> "It seems to be a complete reversal of her position," Thompson said. "The
> entire Bay Area delegation had agreed we would do this National Academy of
> Sciences report to find out scientifically what should and shouldn't be
> done, and for her to turn that on its head and go out unilaterally with
> this
> proposal does not take into consideration the needs of all of California."
>
> Thompson accused Feinstein of "trying to spin this as a job saver, but that
> ignores the jobs up north that depend on water." He compared Feinstein's
> plan to the Bush administration's water diversions in the Klamath River
> Basin in 2002 that severely damaged fisheries and were later reversed.
>
> Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said, "Best I can see, she's making a
> decision that jobs in the Bay Area and Northern California and the
> Peninsula
> south of San Francisco aren't as important as jobs in the Central Valley."
>
> Feinstein contends that the amendment to the jobs bill would not waive the
> Endangered Species Act but instead follow a 2003 precedent that guaranteed
> water deliveries in New Mexico despite restrictions imposed to protect the
> silvery minnow.
>
> Miller, a former chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said
> Feinstein's amendment would suspend federal environmental laws that protect
> fish. Verifying the science
>
> Feinstein made no mention Thursday of her demand for the National Academy
> of
> Sciences report, due next month, to verify the science behind
> fish-conservation demands.
>
> Resnick's business has given $29,000 to Feinstein's campaigns and $246,000
> more to Democratic political committees during years when she sought
> re-election, according to a report by California Watch, an investigative
> journalism nonprofit organization, that was published in The Chronicle in
> December.
>
> Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater (Merced County), defended Feinstein's move.
> "The situation in the valley is continuing to deteriorate, and we have a
> situation where even with more rain than usual, we could have less
> allocations than last year," Cardoza said. He said even with large cutbacks
> in water allocations to farmers, delta smelt and other fish populations
> have
> not improved.
>
> Cardoza said recent studies show the pumps that environmentalists say
> pulverize fish are in fact destroying only a handful. "The pumps were shut
> down for six or 10 additional fish," Cardoza said. "This is the height of
> insanity, and it's time we quit devastating the California economy and
> understand what is really going on here."
>
> In a statement Thursday, Feinstein said that recent weeks of heavy rain and
> Sierra snowfall have brought snowpacks to 130 percent of their normal
> level.
> At the same time, "water has been gushing past the canals and into the
> oceans while farms on the west side of the (Central) Valley are likely to
> receive a very low percentage of their water allocations for a second year
> because that water cannot be pumped and stored." Political jockeying
>
> Feinstein's action comes after months of political jockeying between
> Republicans and Democrats over whether the Endangered Species Act is
> destroying California's farming industry. Several fisheries on the coast
> from southern Oregon to San Luis Obispo have been shut down for three years
> for lack of runoff, idling commercial and recreational fishing and
> devastating the small businesses that depend on it.
>
> Farmers have also seen water supplies evaporate. Before this season's heavy
> rains, a three-year drought forced big cuts in their water allotments,
> forcing 400,000 acres to lie fallow and pushing unemployment in some towns
> toward 40 percent.
>
> Farmers, fishermen and environmentalists had been negotiating on a
> long-term
> remedy to the decline of California's delta estuary, one of the largest in
> the world and on a scale with Florida's Everglades, but even more heavily
> damaged by a century of water diversions.
>
> This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
>
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/12/MNBT1C05E1.DTL
>
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-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319