Republicans Call for Action to Address Man-Made Drought (California farmers lose fight to fishes)

Ranking Member Doc Hastings, along with Representatives Devin Nunes, Tom McClintock, Kevin McCarthy, Ken Calvert and George Radanovich, hold a press conference to highlight the man-made California drought and policies that provide water for fish (like the three-inch smelt shown above), but not people.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Natural Resources Committee held a full committee hearing today on the "The California Drought: Actions by Federal and State agencies to address impacts on lands, fisheries and water users." Witnesses, including several members of California's Congressional delegation, testified that this is a man-made drought, resulting from Endangered Species Act regulations that have diverted much-needed water from California families on the farm to three-inch Delta Smelt fish in the bay. The man-made actions have been devastating to California's San Joaquin Valley where it is estimated that this year alone up to 35,000 jobs will be lost and 300,000 acres of farm land won't be used because water has been diverted.

Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) explained, "Communities dependent on irrigated agriculture are now approaching 40% unemployment as they watched over 83 billion gallons of water - which was water normally dedicated to the fields -- go out to the ocean in the last month alone. It's important to protect lands and endangered fish, but our government's environmental policies shouldn't make our communities endangered in the process."

Republicans have offered numerous solutions to provide necessary relief to families, farmers and businesses in California's San Joaquin Valley who are struggling to survive in the midst of a man-made drought. Solutions include passing legislation (specifically H.R. 996 and H.R. 856) to suspend the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act during times of drought emergency to ensure that the Delta pumps operate at historic capacity, encouraging the Administration to take steps to allow for water transfers and temporary barriers to keep smelt away from the pumps, and offering new water storage as a longer-term proposal to help the State in alternating times of drought and floods.

Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-21) warned, "This Congress has stood silent for nearly two years as San Joaquin Valley residents have been starved of water. Democrat leaders need to stop hiding behind the courts and bowing down to special interests. If they do not act within the next 30 days, it's over. We will witness the collapse of modern civilization in the San Joaquin Valley.

Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-44) testified that there is no proof that diverting water to the ocean will actually benefit the Delta Smelt fish. "If this Committee is going to continue to give federal agencies the authority to take actions that kill jobs and harm our economy for the benefits of species, then the American people deserve clear and undeniable evidence that those actions are in fact benefiting the species."

Congressman George Radanovich (CA-19) noted that "the draconian regulations that turn simple fish into the worshipful gods of the environmental community and ignore the inalienable rights of people have led us to conclude that Government does not work for us any more--we need the Government to protect the safety and happiness of people, not fish."

Congressman Wally Herger (CA-02) stressed the need for "a sustainable, balanced and comprehensive solution to this water situation that will allow us to equitably meet the needs of all water users, human and otherwise. Continuing down the same path we have been on for decades is not acceptable."

Additionally, 17 members of the California Congressional delegation today sent... letter to Committee Chairman Nick Rahall and Ranking Member Hastings, requesting field hearings on the California drought in order to get "the Committee to step outside the Washington beltway and hear firsthand accounts from citizens throughout California impacted by the drought."

Also see here :

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/03/31/abc-judge-cuts-water-california-farmers-save-endangered-fish

ABC: Judge Cuts Water to California Farmers to Save Endangered Fish

By Brad Wilmouth

On the March 28 World News Saturday, ABC gave rare attention to the plight of drought-stricken farmers in California who have been denied access to a major water supply by a judge citing the Endangered Species Act to protect a type of fish. During a story recounting the unusual level of problems facing these farmers – a recession coinciding with drought – correspondent Lisa Fletcher informed viewers: “And for the first time ever, farmers may be completely cut off from one of their sources of water. Farmers don’t have access to this water that runs right through the center of their farmland. It is being allocated to the delta smelt, a little fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. Conservationists say the smelt are dying in the irrigation pumps, so a judge ruled they must be shut off for much of the growing season.”

Fletcher then told of an almond farmer who is now forced to spend $600,000 digging his own well. Fletcher: “That hits almond farmers, like Shawn Coburn, particularly hard. Ninety percent of the nation’s almonds come from this valley, and almond trees need a lot of water. ... So Coburn is spending $600,000 to dig a new well, and he hopes to buy himself some time.”

The report ended with a soundbite of Firebaugh, California, city manager Jose Ramirez pleading for more water: “All our people want here is a job. That’s all we want. You let the water flow, food will grow, and jobs will flow after that, and we’re in business.”

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2009/04/heres_your_scorecard_on_fish_v.html

Here’s your scorecard on fish vs. people in Congress

By Jim Boren

— Fish are winning this battle with strong performances from their well-connected sponsors, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

— People are losing with House Democratic leaders making Valley Reps. Jim Costa of Fresno and Dennis Cardoza of Merced look particularly impotent on water issues. Maybe they should change parties. They get more support on water from the GOP.

— Straddling fence award goes to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is trying to play to both sides of the water controversy. That hasn’t help get one extra drop of water for Valley agriculture.

— Mr. Irrelevant Award goes to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has no clout in the Obama administration, and just delivers the bad water news to California that he gets from the Oval Office. Even if he wears a cowboy hat, he comes off as a city slicker trying to fit in.

— In the also-ran category, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, adds nothing to the debate over farm water by asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to resign Friday. Does Nunes want to work for a water solution or is he just trying to grab headlines? That was a very weak move on Nunes’ part. Of course, we barely hear from the other GOP congressman from our area, George Radanovich of Mariposa, so Nunes at least has a lead over his House colleague.

We can talk about the abusive our federal system when unelected Washington bureaucrats can regulate farmers in California out of business on behalf of fishes. We could talk about the rights of private property and the constitutional protections being sidestepped. Sometime ago I published a deliberately provocative vanity which drew much negative reaction. I repeated here:

U.S. population may hit 400 million by 2043

Posted by nathanbedford to CAWats

On News/Activism 10/22/2006 3:14:57 AM EDT · 30 of 36

I first posted this a couple of years ago. Alas it is only more drearily true today:

THE POPULATION OF AMERICA HAS DOUBLED IN MY LIFETIME

If you have lost control of your local school system and you believe it is because liberalism is triumphing over conservatism, you are right but you have identified the symptom and not the cause: The population of America has doubled in my lifetime.

If you have lost control over your own real property, if your rights to manage, improve, and develop your property have passed over to bureaucrats, if you can no longer choose whom to rent to or whom to sell to, if you have lost confidence that your deed in fee simple absolute will protect you against a venal government or one wholly given over to interest groups, and for all of this you blame liberalism, you have identified the symptom but not the cause: The population of America has doubled in my lifetime.

If you are a rancher who has lost his rights to graze his cattle upon lands licensed to his family for generations, if you're a fox hunter who has been deprived of his sport, if you must wait three hours for a tee time, if you have given up taking the family to the Jersey shore because the travel time now exceeds three hours, if, after hours of travail, you finally arrive at the Jersey shore with your family and you find your neighbors to close, too numerous, polyglot, and uncongenial, know this;The population of America has doubled in my lifetime.

If you look at Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida as-miracle of the jet age-suburbs of New York City, and you watch helplessly as the politics of these counties veer ever farther left potentially dragging all Florida and, with Florida, the soul of the Republican Party in America, be advised: The population of America has doubled in my lifetime.

If, as a parent or grandparent, you find yourself mightily boring your children or grandchildren with descriptions of how Christmas used to be, descriptions of a time gone by when shopkeepers were permitted to say, "Merry Christmas," when Christmas carols were really that, carols, when the public square was a place for the exuberant celebration of the birth of Christ, rather than a forum for the celebration of the pagan, then you instinctively know: The population of America has doubled in my lifetime.

This piece drew the predictable reaction of those who believe that our space can accommodate an infinite number of competitors for space and resources without markedly altering our culture and our politics. In response to one of those criticisms, I replied as follows:

Have you considered the water needs of the Los Angeles basin and Las Vegas? have you seen the New Jersey shore and Barnegat Bay which once used to be pristine wilderness? Have you tried to drive your car anywhere in Northern Virginia in under an hour? have you tried to get a camping place in Yellowstone?

Your statistics are of interest but I prefer the evidence of my own eyes.

There is a saying in the Rocky Mountains, "definition of a developer: someone who wants to build his cabin in the mountains; definition of a conservationist: someone who builds his cabin last year."

When the population of America doubled in my lifetime from 140 million to 300 million or more, the pressure on the land more than doubles and regulations are not only inevitable but indispensable and desirable. We do not have clean rivers and water in America except by regulation. Industrial polluters did not have an epiphany and join hands with everyone to sing kumbaya. It is not only the amount of people that stresses the environment but the way we live. We travel more and we use more water. The land we want is in the rich and productive valleys, and on desirable beaches and around harbors where commerce can flourish. It is now gotten to the point where we are eating much less desirable land in the deserts heedless of future generations' needs for water.

My point is that whingeing about overreaching bureaucrats and mindless regulations is a losing battle in our population environment simply because people will accept the evidence of their own eyes.

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