Forget jobs summit: Turn on California's waterThere's much more here.
By: HUGH HEWITT
For Fresno and California's entire Central Valley, it should be the best of times.
With the dollar weak and the world hungry, the exceptionally fertile fields along the Golden State highway should be producing record yields of grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Instead framers are struggling to keep even a third of their potential acreage in use. Mile after mile of parched land greets the approach to the city of 500,000. And angry signs along the roadside condemn the federal government that has cut off the valley's water.
The delta smelt, a small fish that makes its home in the vast Sacramento Delta, has been declared endangered. Since late last year the water lifeline from the north to the south has been reduced to a trickle.
The pumps that power the water to the farms have been stilled for months at a time so as to avoid sucking in smelt. The smelt's numbers have been reduced by many causes, but the one the federal government has decided to target is the pumps.
When Washington, D.C., ordered the water shut off, jobs went down the drain. Tens of thousands of farm jobs have been lost, and unemployment in some farming towns has hit 40 percent.
On each trip through the Central Valley - and I've made a lot of them - I've seen signs blasting Congress for creating the Dust Bowl and inferring that a new one is happening now. I've heard local talk radio broadcasts with callers crying for help and the water they need to keep their farms going and their people employed. It's a real mess up there and all because we have people in government who don't understand that people are more important than fish.
Fortunately, the Valley might get a little help this winter from Mother Gaia. We're heading into an El Niño weather pattern that should bring heavier than usual rain to the west coast. We could use it.
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2 comments:
I hope God will solve the problem, because the idiots in DC won't. Are they positive that CA is the only place that little fish lives?
And, who cares about this little fish anyway. God has always provided enough of what is needed and has given man the smarts to produce what we need. The idiots in D.C. just keep showing us how stupid they are with decisions like this one. Is there anything we can do to get the water turned back on?
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