BLOG: END OF WATER-YEAR STORED CVP SUPPLY A TRAVESTY GOVERNMENT ACTION REQUIRED TO STAVE OFF FUTURE DISASTER

Plentiful water, poor deliveries

While millions suffer the environmental consequences of chronically inadequate water supplies south of the Delta, the United States Bureau of Reclamation will end the 2016 water-year with over 4 million acre-feet of water in northern California storage. This inequity in water supply is rooted in the quarter-century long failure of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to protect Delta smelt and winter-run salmon. Over the last 25 years, the United States has spent billions of dollars, dedicated millions of acre-feet of water, and caused untold socio-economic and environmental damage to hundreds of California communities, many severely disadvantaged, in the unsuccessful attempt to satiate the political demands of a handful of unaffected, extremely powerful, environmental groups who have consistently ignored the human costs of their failed policies.

Water costs rise

Most Californians are suffering unnecessarily from reduced water supplies and higher water costs as a result. But nowhere is the pain more acute than in California’s San Joaquin Valley. With a population roughly the size of Oregon, the San Joaquin Valley includes the nation’s second largest wetlands complex, home to millions of migratory birds and numerous endangered terrestrial species, and seven of the nation’s top ten agricultural producing counties, all of which require the delivery of sufficient fresh water from Northern California’s reservoirs.

Important food production is being lost

The reason the San Joaquin Valley can produce more than 400 different crops – half of the U.S.-produced fruits, nuts, and vegetables – is because of its fertile soil and irreplaceable Mediterranean climate, the only such climate in North America. While we may be able to import many other items once made in America, we cannot replace the unique environment of the San Joaquin Valley. So too, we cannot replace its farming practices. California’s farmers are the most progressive in the world. They produce a bounty of healthy, affordable crops, to the highest food safety, worker safety, and pesticide safety standards, with a minimum of water use and greenhouse gas emissions. By unreasonably limiting water supplies to the San Joaquin Valley, hundreds of thousands of acres are fallowed, jobs are lost, communities suffer, production to meet the unceasing food demand shifts to other countries, and the food production values we all hold dear are compromised. In the end, agricultural water is what we all eat every day.

Failed federal policies – for people and fish

In the quarter century since the federal government first assumed responsibility over Delta smelt and winter-run salmon, Water Authority agricultural contractors have received just over 50% of the CVP water they were promised to receive. In the eight years since federal fish agencies imposed the most restrictive cuts, they have received only 25 percent. And this year, despite abundant rainfall, and over 4 million acre-feet of water sitting in Northern CVP storage, they received a mere 5 percent, or 90,000 acre-feet. And throughout this timeframe of federal regulatory intervention, delta smelt and winter-run salmon populations have continued their unabated decline.

The time for change is now

Since the beginning of the federal regulatory era, independent scientists have warned against simplistic solutions. Regrettably, the fish agencies continue to stubbornly ignore this advice, and instead have embarked on a “more of the same” campaign. The time for change is now. Delta smelt and winter-run salmon will not survive another quarter century of the failed federal decisions. And many in the San Joaquin Valley will not survive another year of miniscule water supplies. Congress has been considering how to provide a modicum of relief from these devastating federal policies but has failed to achieve a solution. The time for action is now. Left unchecked, the kind of federal decisions that have failed people and endangered fish will create an even worse situation in 2017 irrespective of rainfall.