Farmers losing to fish in California

The picture taken on the right was taken last month near Rio Vista, California, sixty miles east of San Francisco.

Like the rest of California's central valley, it's as dry as a bone.

It's often said that the next major war in the Middle East will be fought over not oil, but an even more important liquid--water.

And the next big political battle in the tarnished state of California could be over that essential fluid of life.

California has plenty of water--not just a lot of rain. When it comes to California's San Joaquin Valley, that's always been the case. But why are so many fields brown there?

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) explains what went wrong:

California has the largest water storage and transportation system in the world. With 1,200 miles of canals and nearly 50 reservoirs, the system captures enough water to irrigate about four million acres and provide water to 23 million people. In many cases, as with the San Joaquin Valley, water in this system is sold to communities by the federal government.

Some claim that California is facing a three-year-old drought. But, according to the state's Department of Water Resources, California reservoirs have received 80% of their normal amount of water and precipitation in the northern Sierras has been 95% of its yearly average this year. So why isn't there more water for farms? Because theirs is a regulatory-mandated drought. The 1973 Endangered Species Act requires that the government take steps to save endangered species. In California, that's meant diverting vast sums of water into rivers and streams to protect fish. Those diversions this year have forced federal authorities to decide who to serve—fish or farmers.

On Dec. 15, 2008, the Bush administration's Fish and Wildlife Service chose fish, a decision driven by a lawsuit filed in federal court in 2006 by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups. To settle the suit, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to divert more than 150 billion gallons of water this year away from farmers south of San Francisco in hopes of protecting the Delta smelt—a three-inch bait fish. The water is now flowing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the Pacific Ocean.

Half of the nation's vegetables come from this region, unemployment in the valley is higher than the nation's average.

Nunes remarks in his op-ed, "Congress has the power to solve this crisis."

The power yes, but not the will. The Pelosi Democrats are linked at the hip to the environmentalists.

But there is an election next year.

Fish can't vote.

Technorati tags: California government politics devin nunes environment drought water conservation green