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PCFFA responds to e-mail traffic generated by the Hannity circus

September 22, 2009 -- Not surprisingly, we got a LOT of email to this address, right after the Fox News Sean Hannity program about Zeke's statements, some quite complimentary but many downright rude (like the program's host) ranging right in there to radical wingnut variety.  I believe in responding to such things, though in this case there were far too many to respond to individually.  Here is my response, on behalf of PCFFA, courtesy of bulk email. 
--- Glen Spain
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Dear Email Responder:
 
Thanks for your responses to this PCFFA email box regarding PCFFA Executive Director Zeke Grader's attempts to bring some factual reality to last week's Fox News Sean Hannity Show supposedly on the water problems of California's Central Valley.  There were just too many email responses to reply individually, so hopefully this "group" reply will do. 
 
For those of you thanking us for presenting a more balanced view of California's complex water situation than Sean Hannity, we very much appreciate your support. 
 
Sean Hannity cut Zeke off long before he could finish because Mr. Hannity does not tolerate any dissenting views (or facts) that he does not like or which shows him up for what he is doing -- i.e. creating an artificial controversy in a politically motivated attempt to blame the Obama Administration for the California impacts of what is a natural drought.  In this case his entire "fish vs. people" rhetoric agenda and his efforts to blame federal environmental protections in the California Delta for farm unemployment in the west side of the California Central Valley is almost totally fabricated. 
 
For those who were negative or worse in your email, you should be aware of some facts that Sean Hannity conveniently omitted in his efforts to blame the wrong thing -- ESA protections for the Delta ecosystem -- for what is ultimately a drought-caused problem further exacerbated by the greed and stupidity of certain large agricultural growers in the west side Central Valley who are profiting enormously by selling their water south at a huge profit and putting a lot of people out of work in the process.  Here are some facts that Mr. Hannity does not want you to know:
 
(1) The pumps Mr. Hannity wants the government to turn on in the Central Valley have been on since June 30th.  Most farmers in the Central Valley are getting 80% or more of their normal water allocation in spite of the drought, many crops are at record or near-record levels of production (including almonds and tomatos) and farm-related unemployment in the region (always high because of the seasonal nature of farming) is actually BELOW what it was in many past years prior to any water impacts by the Delta smelt.  Farm employment actually increased this year in Mendota, not decreased.  
 
(2) A few of the Westlands Water District and west side Central Valley growers did lose some of their water allocation this year (as they do in any drought), because they are the most junior water right holders at the end of a long pipeline.  The ones that previously planted permanent tree crops like almonds, knowing their water allocation was interruptible in any drought, simply made a very stupid business decision.  Those who plant annual crops will be back in business as soon as the drought breaks.  In the meantime, various state and federal programs, including $40 million in federal drought disaster assistance, is helping to ease some of the economic burden.  At heart, however, the water problems of the Central Valley are caused primarily by drought and not by federal environmental protection policies. Most of the growers who got cut off this year would have gotten cut off anyway because they are junior water right holders, even had the Delta smelt never existed.
 
(3) Leaving enough water in the SF Bay Delta to keep the Delta ecosystem healthy makes a lot more sense than stripping ever increasing amounts of water out of the Delta to flood fields in the Central Valley.  For one thing, the Delta usually supports one of the largest and most valuable salmon fisheries in the world, a billion dollar industry typically providing high quality salmon and employing many thousands of families in California and up into Oregon.  Those jobs are gone this year and last because too much water was taken out for irrigation in the past, collapsing these salmon runs, and this year commercial salmon fishermen are closed down completely for the second year in a row as a result in both states.  We sympathize with the pain being felt by Mendota's high unemployment rates for farm workers -- but salmon fishermen are now 100% unemployed for the second year in a row because too much water has been taken out in the past by the industrial Central Valley growers. 
 
Also, the collapse of the Delta's ecosystem (as the collapse of Delta smelt populations indicate is happening) may soon turn the domestic water supply for 25 MILLION Californian's into a gigantic stagnant and toxic swamp, jeopardizing the drinking water quality for much of the state.  The Delta smelt's importance is not economic, but as a basic biological "indicator species" for the environmental health of the entire SF Delta ecosystem.  Protecting the Delta Smelt thus protects both the commercially valuable salmon runs in this same system as well as this major drinking water supply.  Protecting the health of the Delta is thus not just about fish -- its also about protecting people and thousands of fishing jobs and public health.
 
(4) Most of the fields in the California Central Valley are green and productive even during this drought.  A number of the "barren fallow fields" in the Central Valley's west side areas are barren this year simply because those growers can make a lot more profit, and make it a lot easier, simply selling their taxpayer-subsidized water allocation to the highest bidder for a lot more money.  This is happening all over the west side, fallowing many less valuable almond fields and putting more farmworkers out of work. 
 
A recent example was written up in the local Central Valley paper Hanford Sentinel on August 27th, and is clipped and pasted below.  In short, the farm workers out demonstrating for Sean Hannity (many of them paid to do so by the growers) and some portions of the media (particularly Fox News) are simply parroting a line given them for perpetuating a huge water profiteering scam by some of the large Central Valley Agribusiness growers who are more than happy to have Sean Hannity blame the federal government for a problem they themselves are helping to create, and hope to profit greatly from at the expense of their workers.  This is one main reason why the United Farm Workers -- which is a legitimate union for farm workers -- has repudiated these demonstrations and withdrawn its support for these efforts.
 
PCFFA, by the way, is not an environmental group.  We are rank-and-file family fishermen who also help feed America.
 
For more information about what this is really all about check out the following web sites:
http://www.doi.gov/documents/CA_Water_Reality_Check.pdf
 
http://salmonwaternow.org (several videos on the rest of the story)