The San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta is on the Endangered Rivers list as No. 1 to fail. This status is due to the age and type of construction that was adequate at the time it was built (100 years ago by Chinese labor), but has not been properly maintained over the years. If it were to fail, thousands of acres of lowland farmland would be flooded and rendered useless, not to mention some cities, homes, businesses, and displaced populations. Billions of dollars in California’s economy would be lost.

This has been put on a list somewhere and ignored. They’re hoping it won’t happen on their watch. Meanwhile the legislators take $8.6 billion out of funds for transportation and put it in the general fund where they can get at it for pet projects. As far as I’m concerned, there is no more important project in California than fixing the rivers.

Ignoring it does not make it go away.

Then, there is the Endangered Species List. A list of all the little critters that are on the verge of extinction, like the Long Finned Delta smelt, the Chinook salmon, the kangaroo rat, the spotted owl, the red tailed salamander, and the list goes on, but it’s a little too short. They seem to have left off the San Joaquin Valley farmer and farm laborer. Without the delta water for irrigation of the state’s agriculture, they will be added to the list. In the meanwhile all the delta fresh water flows merrily into the San Francisco east bay, where it is useless to everyone.

Why do they think all the blame is on the pumps? What about the natural hazards that exist? Like the stripped bass? Isn’t the smelt the same size as the lure used to fish for bass in the delta, or any where else for that matter? Why is the pump the only thing to blame?

Without the delta water you can add the farmers and the laborers to other lists, like the welfare list, the unemployment list, the foreclosure list, and the bankruptcy list. Without the water we will be importing produce from other countries that the EPA and the FDA have no control over. The prices of produce will skyrocket and the produce will not be fresh after weeks on a ship.

Wake up, people, and smell the stinky future.

Larry Turner,
Madera

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 1:39 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.