Federal Judge Might Save Central California

The new Dust Bowl in Central California, created by the combination of envirowackos and idiotic federal regulators, may get some relief from a federal judge who can't believe we're destroying the economy of a huge part of California in order to save a 3" fish and a few of his buddies:

A judge in Fresno slammed the federal government Tuesday for reducing the supply of water last year to Central Valley farmers and millions of California residents without scientific justification.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger will consider restoring the water supply and ordering government biologists back to the drawing board during a hearing today that could decide the fate of the state's beleaguered salmon.

The flow of delta water to farms and communities was cut by about 7 percent in June 2009 to protect salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, whose primary prey is salmon. Biologists with the National Marine Fisheries Service claimed in an 800-page regulatory report known as a biological opinion that there was not enough water in the delta to support migrating salmon, which are too often killed in the delta pumps that move water south - or harmed by warmer waters resulting from the water delivery.

Wanger agreed with agricultural representatives who claimed that the pumping restrictions were harmful to more than 20 million residents and farmers, many of whom had to let their fields go fallow. He criticized the fisheries service for not backing up its numbers with sound science, calling the restrictions "arbitrary, capricious and scientifically unreasonable."

"Federal defendants completely abdicated their responsibility to consider alternative remedies," Wanger wrote. The fisheries service actions "lack factual and scientific justification, while effectively ignoring the irreparable harm those (regulations) have inflicted on humans and the human environment."

Some cities in the Central Valley now have massive unemployment because of the lack of water to local farms. Millions of dollars in crops have died in the fields and economies of many Central California towns have been devastated.

At some point the welfare of people has got to take precedence over the welfare of fish.