How will the new water restrictions ordered in California help the fish?
Earlier this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged $260 million in federal stimulus money for drought relief and water restoration projects in the state. The funds include $109.8 million for a screened pumping plant at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam to protect fish populations, $20 million for Contra Costa Canal, and $40 million for immediate emergency drought relief in the West, with a focus on California. Angry Central Valley farmers were not impressed. It’s a “slap in the face,” said Mr. Patricio, describing the stimulus pledge as “a touchy-feely, warm-and-fuzzy, feel good, pork project without any true benefit.” Patricio, who is also chairman of the board of directors for the Western Growers Association, says he has laid off hundreds of workers on his 2,000-acre cantaloupe farm near Firebaugh in the past few years, and watched dozens of his neighboring farmer friends go belly up. “We’ve spent hundreds of millions studying the problem when we could have spent that same money on
California officials ordered an additional 17 percent cut in the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect a fish in the most populous U.S. state’s fresh water hub. This helps protect the fish by making sure there is enough water in the delta to support them. Sources: http://www.reuters.
California officials ordered on Friday an additional 17 percent cut in the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect a fish in the most populous U.S. state’s fresh water hub. Combined with a prior U.S. court order to reduce pumping to protect another fish in the delta, the amount of water drawn from it by state and federal water systems will be cut by nearly half from average levels, said Don Strickland, a spokesman for California’s Department of Water Resources. Water from the delta, which is east of San Francisco, is distributed as far away as Southern California, where a number of local water authorities in the most populated part of the state have already imposed water use restrictions after two years of below-average rainfall and snow in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in June declared a statewide drought and state water officials fear it may press on. California’s farmers are also concerned about the drought and reduced supplies of delta water
