California is a desert. Anyone who’s seen “China Town” knows the lines – LA is a desert right next to an ocean that’s filled with unusable water. In the 1960's the governor and state officials created what could well have been and still be the greatest water storage and diverting system in the world. As a result of these engineering feats California became a giant garden that supplies food for the entire nation and much of the world to boot. It’s a man-made system that turned... our largest desert state into our largest grower state.
Now the governor, state supreme court, our president, EPA and a legion of environmental lobby groups are seemingly more concerned that a smelt fish get adequate water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains runoff than the growers who provide you and I with beans, tomatoes, squash, strawberries and myriad other produce items. water from the Sierra Nevada snow melt and seasonal rains is typically diverted into California’s central valley (San Joaquin Valley) where it follow channels and locks into tributaries which then supply the local farmers and ranchers. Because of the need for the Delta Smelt to have adequate water the decision has been made to shut off the water to the diverted systems & allow those slender, silver little fishies something to breathe.
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-delta-smelt-a-fish-more-important-than-people
The president and state government have given the farmers a billion dollars. But not water, which, if you have a backyard garden & have ever tried watering your cucumbers with crisp George Washtingtons you know, doesn’t work so well.
The water that flows into the delta and keeps the smelt alive then flows directly to the Pacific Ocean, where if course becomes useless for non-marine plant consumption. The food prices we will all be looking at this summer are going to be phenomenal. And shortages to world humanitarian aid efforts will be devastating to those in corners of the earth that most need it.
Just look at these pictures. California was made green by a man-made system and is not being made brown again because of poor leadership and decisions. BUT. At least the delta smelt are happy.
Now the governor, state supreme court, our president, EPA and a legion of environmental lobby groups are seemingly more concerned that a smelt fish get adequate water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains runoff than the growers who provide you and I with beans, tomatoes, squash, strawberries and myriad other produce items. water from the Sierra Nevada snow melt and seasonal rains is typically diverted into California’s central valley (San Joaquin Valley) where it follow channels and locks into tributaries which then supply the local farmers and ranchers. Because of the need for the Delta Smelt to have adequate water the decision has been made to shut off the water to the diverted systems & allow those slender, silver little fishies something to breathe.
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-delta-smelt-a-fish-more-important-than-people
The president and state government have given the farmers a billion dollars. But not water, which, if you have a backyard garden & have ever tried watering your cucumbers with crisp George Washtingtons you know, doesn’t work so well.
The water that flows into the delta and keeps the smelt alive then flows directly to the Pacific Ocean, where if course becomes useless for non-marine plant consumption. The food prices we will all be looking at this summer are going to be phenomenal. And shortages to world humanitarian aid efforts will be devastating to those in corners of the earth that most need it.
Just look at these pictures. California was made green by a man-made system and is not being made brown again because of poor leadership and decisions. BUT. At least the delta smelt are happy.
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