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Secretary Salazar to Speak at Town Meeting on Drought in Fresno

 

Valley Politicians Perpetuate the Myth of "Fish Versus People"

 

by Dan Bacher, editor of the FishSniffer

June 26, 2009 -- Bowing to pressure from Representatives Devin Nunes, Jim Costa, Dennis Cardoza and George Radanovich, the Department of Interior will hold a "town hall meeting on the drought in California" on Sunday, June 28, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in Fresno at a site to be announced. 

 

Government portrait of Ken Salazar.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce new stimulus monies for the Central Valley and talk about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process. Salazar, Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor are also expected to field complaints from corporate agribusiness interests that they are not receiving enough water from the Central Valley and California Water Projects. 

 

You can expect San Joaquin Valley agribusiness representatives to blame all of their economic problems, real or imagined, on Delta smelt and the recent NMFS biological opinion to protect Central Valley salmon stocks. You can also be sure that Westlands and other agribusiness interests will put intense pressure upon Salazar and the other Interior officials to support the peripheral canal and dams proposal that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein are campaigning for. 

 

Since President Obama took office in January, Congressmen Cardoza and Costa have requested that the incoming Interior Secretary come to the San Joaquin Valley, according to a joint press release from Cardoza and Costa that falsely portrays the battle to restore the California Delta and the thousands of jobs that depend on it as a "fish versus peoples" scenario. They claim that unemployment is the result of a "regulatory drought" caused by relatively modest court-ordered restrictions on pumping to protect Delta smelt and Sacramento River winter run and spring run Chinook salmon. 

 

"The San Joaquin Valley has been especially hard hit by drought in the past few years," their joint release opined. " Additionally, water deliveries to Valley farmers from the San Joaquin Delta have been curtailed by regulators who have placed an undue amount of blame on famers for declines in fish populations to the north." 

 

“The Central Valley simply cannot continue down its current path," claimed Cardoza. "This regulatory drought is destroying our farmers, our families and our local economy. Further, we are facing a genuine risk of having to import additional food to supply our nation. I look forward to providing Secretary Salazar with as much insight as possible about the extreme hardship in our agricultural community and look forward to the assistance that he is capable of providing.” 

 

"The Secretary knows about the hundreds thousands of acres of fallowed fields, the high unemployment and the possibility of a fourth year of drought,” said Costa. “The lack of water has rippled into every facet of our economy. We now have those who normally sow and reap our nation’s food, standing in food lines to feed their own families. As part of this important visit, I will be explaining to the Secretary the need for both short and long term water solutions in California, which include repairing the Delta, improving water supply and quality, and environmental restoration.” 

 

Valley Democrats Cardoza and Costa have formed an unholy alliance with far right Republicans Nunes and Radinovich as they bow down before Westlands Water District and corporate agribusiness. While falsely blaming modest regulatory protections for "fish populations to the north" for the Central Valley's problems, Cardoza and Costa neglected to mention the impacts that massive water exports out of the California Delta have had upon the thousands of people that have been employed in the commercial and recreational fishing industries and the coastal and Central Valley communities that depend upon healthy fisheries for their economic health. The closure of recreational and commercial salmon fishing season off California and Oregon this year and in 2008 has had a devastating impact upon coastal communities in both states. 

 

"While they are bitching about fish protections robbing them of water (not true!), the Bureau of Reclamation is preparing now to ship 40,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water to Southern California – swimming pools and golf courses," noted Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations. 

 

For more information including the place where the town meeting will be held, contact Kendra Barkoff at (202) 208-6416