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California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
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More Lies From the Imaginary “Dust Bowl”

 

By Bill Jennings, Executive Director, CSPA

September 21, 2009 -- The public relations machine of San Joaquin Valley water districts, aided by Tea-Baggers and Fox News (sic) continues to issue dire accounts of the plight of Valley farmers and the “dust bowl” caused by the curtailment of water deliveries in order to save a three-inch minnow.  The fact that their PR machine keeps spouting lies isn't surprising.  However, the failure of print and broadcast media to label this propaganda as lies is nothing less than astonishing.  The facts are:

First, the pumps are on.  According to the Department of Water Resources, yesterday (Sunday 20 September 2009) the state and federal project pumps exported some 13,626 acre-feet of water at a rate of approximately 6,813 feet-per-second (cfs).  As a result, Old and Middle River in the Delta ran uphill against the tide at a negative 5,047 cfs, drawing water (and fish) to the pumps.  Indeed, the San Joaquin River was also running uphill at 176 cfs (although down from minus 650 cfs a few weeks earlier).

Second, agricultural employment in the San Joaquin Valley is a bright spot in the California economy.  According to the employment data from the Department of Economic Development, farm labor employment in the seven counties south of the Delta (Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Madera, Kings, Merced and Stanislaus) increased by 2,700 jobs between July 2008 and July 2009, while nonfarm employment dropped some 29,700 jobs.  Between August 2008 and August 2009, farm labor employment held steady, as nonfarm employment was down 33,500 jobs.

Third, According to the annual Agricultural Crop Reports submitted by County Agricultural Commissioners to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the value of agriculture production in the San Joaquin Valley has increased during the drought.  The seven south-of-Delta counties reported that agricultural production in 2007 increased by $3.77 billion over 2006.  And 2008 agricultural production, in the six counties that have so far submitted reports (Fresno, Kern, Tulare, Kings, Stanislaus and Madera), increased by $541,124,648 over 2007.  The 2008 increase would have been greater but was depressed by a massive reduction in milk prices that caused the market value of milk to drop by $299,972,000.

Fourth, California's Water Code is working as designed.  The only ones not receiving full water allotments during this third year of a drought are those whose rights to water are based on the most junior water rights and whose water contracts explicitly specify that they won't receive contracted amounts during droughts and periods of water shortage.

Lastly, it isn't all about a three-inch fish.  Beyond Delta smelt, the hemorrhaging of the Delta estuary is reflected in the population collapses of longfin smelt, American shad, splittail, threadfin shad, striped bass, herring, sturgeon, steelhead and all four runs of salmon (winter, fall, late fall, spring), as well as the native zooplankton and phytoplankton that comprise their food supply.

All of the commercial fisheries in San Francisco are closed.  The coastal commercial salmon has been closed for two years and the fleet is either dry-docked or in foreclosure.  Recreational salmon fishing is shut down and fishing license sales have dropped by half.  One of the great estuaries of the world is imploding and fisheries that were nurtured over hundreds-of-thousands-of-years are being destroyed by water agency greed in mere decades. 

Perhaps, its time to make the relentless propaganda come true - Westlands delenda est!

 

Farm employment stats