Posted on 05/20/2010 5:26:33 PM PDT by Kaslin
Law: A federal judge has struck a blow for California's water-deprived Central Valley, ruling that draconian federal water cutbacks violate human rights because — surprise! — people also belong in the ecosystem.
Next time a concept like, say "death panels" from the federal government seems far-fetched, consider the ordeal California's Central Valley has endured for the past two years.
Based on a judicial ruling, some of the most prized and productive agricultural land in the country was turned into a wasteland after its water was shut off.
The ruling was derived from an 800-page "biological opinion" put out by regulators enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act, ostensibly to protect a finger-sized fish called the delta smelt and some other wildlife. Regulators complained that smelt were getting ground up in pumping stations that brought river water from California's north to its south, so the water had to stop.
Even the judge was appalled at being forced into the ruling but had no choice, given the law, and tried to cushion the impact.
Tuesday, that same judge, District Judge Oliver Wanger declared to federal regulators that they must consider the impact of their "draconian" actions on human communities, something they've never done up until now.
"Federal defendants completely abdicated their responsibility to consider alternative remedies," Wanger wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Yea, food grows where water flows.
Water shut off for bait.
A good fishfry would solve the problem of these little swimming roaches.
It's a landmark ruling that makes a superb use of checks and balances on power, given that up until now, these bureaucrats have never been held accountable for their actions.
Very important in the way the ruling was written:
1) HUMAN rights MUST be considered and were not.
2) Regulators committed malfeasance in the quality of their work.
Huge gains against the environazis.
One more step would help even more, make regulators personally responsible for the quality of their work.
One can dream.
When do they turn the water back on?
Thank you, Judge Wanger.
I wonder how long before these trees can bear fruit again. I drove through this area recently. It’s dead. It could be years. What a crime. When I see this I fear for our country. But I am afraid this is just one example of the damage our country is taking from the left.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this is blackmail for votes and part of the crushing of the free-market economy, not to mention political adversaries. Soros may want the land or someone like him. It is also probably part of the Agenda 21 removal of human population. I don’t know why or how another set of explosions in re water facilities did not happen, similar to what occurred off the Gulf coast here recently, but it says a lot that people from farming country—some with generational farms—went down with the ship on this one.
Unfreaking believable. This area represents an irreplaceable, national, agricultural resource, the likes of which is, IIRC, unknown elsewhere in the world.
I also don’t know why the delta smelt couldn’t just be grown in fish ponds. That would be a tidy business.
The damned environazis killed more life by shutting off the water then they could have ever dreamed of saving.
They MURDERED THE TREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/sarc ok well sort of. They did more murdering then they did saving, and that’s a fact.
It is indeed, I remember IBD had an editorial about this several month ago, but it would take me to long to scroll back and find it
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