Comments on: 60 Minutes airs San Joaquin Valley water woes

By: Tom Lang

Tom Lang — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:33:55 +0000

Janet, I’m sorry you took my comment about the farmers suffering to mean suffering in all areas. I was referring to suffering in terms of water sacrifice when compared to other, much larger water users. I am very aware of the suffering of the salmon industry. Surely you don’t think that merely turning off Delta pumping to a few westside farmers is enough to save the Delta ecosystem or restore the salmon fishery.

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:06:09 +0000

I’m finding it hard to believe that someone involved with an aquarium can have such a one-sided view of the harm our state’s mismanagement of water has had; “only the farmers seem to suffer” ??? Did you know that the entire salmon fishery (commercial, sport, recreational) has been closed for 2+ years? The substantially increased water exports from the delta this past decade has caused the collapse of the delta, (yes, yes, pollution is not helping esp. when there is less fresh water to mitigate), and the collapse of the salmon runs that depend on it. It is not a coincidence that after another million plus acre feet of water was removed from that estuary annually that the ecological system began to collapse. The idea that we can allow the extinction of wild salmon in order to grow a surplus of almonds…We need to find the place where both farmers and fishermen can earn a living in this state. I believe there is such a place–Framing this as farmers vs. the environment ignores the very real human beings who are being harmed on the “environment” side. Ignoring people whose livelihoods depend on fishing is not moving us toward a solution (Thanks Rep. Nunes!) Please visit http://www.salmonwaternow.org and watch a few of the videos that help tell the other side of this story.

By: Tom Lang

Tom Lang — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:29:27 +0000

Brandon, but tearing ourselves apart seems to be what this state does best! I will agree, that as a whole, California has been taking too much from the environment, but why is it only the farmers who seem to suffer? The governor says everyone should make a 20% cut-back and I’m assuming this means city folks in SF and LA as well. On a statewide basis, if 20% of the water from all the dams on all the tributaries of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers went to the Delta to save it, perhaps the farmers wouldn’t feel as if all the burden was on their shoulders. Maybe I’ve missed it, but has San Francisco committed 20% from Hetch Hetchy and has the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power committed to reducing its annual consumption of our Valley’s water by the same amount to save the Delta?

I hope you will share this discussion with your friends – no matter what “side” they’re on.

By: Tom Lang

Tom Lang — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:56:16 +0000

Exactly, Ceci. It’s not an all-or-nothing situation. An Aquarium would be a great way to teach this, don’t you think?

By: Ceci

Ceci — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:56:08 +0000

Excellent points, Tom. It requires a delicate balancing act – one that has not been done much since Eurocentricism landed in California. Another thing to consider is, in light of all our other budget woes in this state, do we really want to incur another $11 billion debt?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:21:26 +0000

While I don’t think the dear Governor was able to vocalize this very well, it seems that the best course of action IS to find a compromise between the farmers and the environment.

It’s obvious that we’re taking too much, so we need to scale back our farming, so we need to prepare ourselves for a rather significant economic contraction — there’s no two ways about that, we’ve overpowered the environment and WE need to adjust, not the environment.

I don’t want to see farmers losing their farms or their jobs, which is precisely why I want to see governments becoming more proactive in their environmental impact research. California has a great opportunity to do this right and show the rest of the country how viable this is; I just hope we don’t tear ourselves apart before we get the chance.