Last year I wrote some articles on another blog about the man-made drought the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley were enduring due to EPA regulations intended to save the Delta Smelt. You can read these articles here and here and here.
At long last something is going to be done, well, maybe. At least the poor farmers have gotten congressional attention. On Monday there is to be a Congressional Field Hearing on the issue. That's right, some congressional leaders are going to go look at the situation first hand.
Big Government.com reports:
At issue is what residents are calling a government-made drought in the Central and San Joaquin Valleys of California. Legal and environmental regulations in the Endangered Species Act has resulted in the diversion of 200 billion gallons of water from the agricultural heartland of California into the Ocean. According to California farmer Rose Corona,
"Potentially over $20 billion of California's $43 billion of agricultural revenue could be decimated in America's greatest breadbasket as farmers lose their farms and residents are forced to import food from China. While the solutions are not simple, local government officials are not even able to attempt them."
Two thirds of California's water is in Northern California, but two thirds of the people live in Southern California. Over the last generation, a series of aqueducts and canals was built to divert some of the plentiful water in the North so that instead of raising the sea level (as Al Gore warns us is imminent) the fresh water will irrigate incredibly productive land. The five counties effected provide tens of thousands of jobs and a stunning $20 billion of food output.
It has always been my opinion that the fish are less important that humans. Our food supply should not be put in jeopardy for a fish that has no economic value and is actually in more danger from imported species of fish that use them for food.
It is also my opinion and the facts are glaringly clear, that this EPA move on the farmers of California is but a power grab to control the water supply.
Once the government can assume complete control of our water, whether for farming or drinking, they have complete control over us. Something to think about, isn't it?
All that for smelt? If it was Bass or Trout, I could maybe see it, but smelt is just nasty eating fish. My father caught a bunch of them once and after trying to cook them several different ways my mother gave up and buried them in the garden to fertilize the corn. - Nancy
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