https://www.wsj.com/us-news/california-drought-water-farmers-endangered-fish-64184f90?st=dh4li4a1zid2yex&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Remember how California got out of drought this last year and everything was good again? Yep, none of that rain mattered.
We did it all for the fishes.
But don't worry! Gavin to the rescue with another HSR level idea. This time for water. I'm sure it will stay within budget and be built on time just like HSR.
Remember how California got out of drought this last year and everything was good again? Yep, none of that rain mattered.
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California is awash in water after record-breaking rains vanquished years of crippling drought. That sounds like great news for farmers. But Ron McIlroy, whose shop here sells equipment for plowing fields, knows otherwise.
"I'll be lucky if I survive this year," he said.
Illustrating how broken California's vast water-delivery system is, many farmers in Central Valley, America's fruit and vegetable basket, will get just 40% of the federal water they are supposed to this year.
We did it all for the fishes.
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Why? Endangered fish.
The pumps that transport water from wet Northern California to the semiarid south have been drastically slowed to protect threatened migrating smelt, measuring up to 3 inches, and steelhead. That means growers in the U.S.'s richest farming area are having to plant fewer crops even as they are surrounded by water.
"There's no reason for it and it's dangerous for the country," said Wayne Western, farm manager of Hammonds Ranch, which plans to plant tomatoes, cotton and other crops on only 60% of its 5,000 acres this year, compared with 80% last year. "You don't know how to plan. You kind of come to a standstill."
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Record rain and snow last year allowed farmers in the district to receive their full allotment of federal water, a contrast to the prior two years when they received none.
But the picture darkened for farmers when the Bureau of Reclamation initially forecast a paltry 15% water allocation in February before raising it to 40% in April.
But don't worry! Gavin to the rescue with another HSR level idea. This time for water. I'm sure it will stay within budget and be built on time just like HSR.
Quote:
Gov. Gavin Newsom's team is using the bottleneck as Exhibit A for constructing a $20-billion tunnel to bypass the delta, in part, to allow threatened fish to swim undisturbed. However, the project faces fierce opposition from a coalition of landowners, tribes and environmental groups.