San Joaquin Valley - Apparently the nationally shown Sean Hannity news show last Thursday from the San Joaquin Valley that focused on the water crisis facing farmers touched on a nerve that has created more controversy.
Hannity's show on the Fox News network, and the Valley Public Television show by Huell Howser on the water crisis that same day showed how the lack of water this summer is impacting agriculture in the Valley. Hannity's show featured local farmers and elected officials like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) and Jim Costa (D-Fresno).
Several thousand people turned out at a fallow field in southwestern Fresno County for the show Thursday, including many members of the Tulare County and Kings County Farm Bureaus. They displayed signs and shouted – “Turn the Pumps On” – throughout the hour-long show.
Howser's show later that night featured farmers and farmworkers on the Valley's Westside that has seen unemployment hit 40 percent because thousands of acres of land has been left fallow for lack of water to irrigate crops. The lack of water, as displayed on Howser's program, has also led to the bulldozing over of thousands of almond trees. Appearing on the show was Ron Jacobsma, general manager of Friant Water Users Authority.
“I thought it was a pretty good message,” said Jacobsma.” He is educating people on what this lack of water is meaning.”
On Friday, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior issued a “Reality Check” that stated the lack of water is not caused by environmental decisions as claimed by Hannity, Nunes and many others, but by three years of drought.
On Tuesday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R- S.C.) offered an amendment to the 2010 Interior Department spending bill. His amendment seeks to prohibit funding for biological decisions that are responsible for Delta pumping restrictions.
“Senator DeMint's amendment
represents significant progress in our effort to gain Congressional support
for a legislative solution to the man-made drought. Opponents of this
amendment will have to explain to their constituents why a three inch
minnow is more important than suffering families and communities,”
said Nunes.
Nunes, Costa, and Dan Nelson of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority,
quickly blasted the Interior for its statement.
“The Department of Interior released a dishonest document to the press in an attempt to confuse the issue. Interior denies a manmade drought exists. They defend the biological decisions that have devastated our region and make no secret of their view that our water shortages are not their problem,” blasted Nunes, a longtime critic of federal decisions slowing the flow of water out of the San Joaquin Delta to farmers.
Nunes and Hannity said the drought is manmade.
“The Northern Sierra's precipitation (where Delta water comes from) has reached 95 percent of average and many of the reservoirs responsible for delivering our water were forced to spill as they became full. Overall, statewide precipitation is 81 percent of normal,” charged Nunes.
Costa challenged the Interior on its recent claim that it can do little to ease the regulatory drought contributing to water shortages.
“Here is the truth about federal water regulations that are cutting our local water supplies in the name of saving endangered fish: We are being punished for pollution entering the water system as far north as Sacramento and beyond, as well as for the predatory bass and other stressors beyond our area's control.”
He continued, “We have called on the Department of the Interior time and time again to make its regulations reflect what is actually happening to endangered species in the real world, rather than blaming everything on us. Our Valley economy and hard-working Valley people continue to suffer because of it. They refuse to listen, but I hear what my constituents are saying.”
Nelson said a half a million acre feet of water has been lost this year because of the decision to not pump water to protect the tiny fish – Delta Smelt. He said 1.5 million acre feet were lost because of the drought.
“In other words, federal regulatory requirements have exacerbated the water shortages caused by the hydrologic drought by nearly one-third,” he said in a release.
He too quoted statistics that show more water was delivered to farmers in more severe drought years than this year. “This point is the driest on record (1977) and yet the CVP (Central Valley Project) was able to deliver to its south of Delta ag contractors 25 percent of their water supply.” This year, those users got just 10 percent.
Jacobsma said the statement by the Interior was disappointing. “All of us in water community continue to be frustrated,” calling the statement “ludicrous.”
He said the water situation was better
at the end of the dry spell in the late '80s and early '90s than it is
today. “Even after five years of a drought, the water condition
was better than this year. It was not a critically dry year this past
year,” he said.
He said the feds need to acknowledge that decisions on the pumps are having
a devastating impact on not only the Valley, but the entire state. And,
if water pumping restrictions continue, then the water users on the east
side of the Valley will be next to see serious reductions.
Costa said he would call for a reassessment of the Interior's responsibility. “It is unfair and insensitive to ignore the devastating hardships DOI is creating by not considering the flexibility that exists under current law in the operations of the federal and state pumping facilities,” he said.
Jacobsma summed up the hopes of many.
“We're going to need a super wet year next year in order to get
any water out of the Delta.”
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