**America could be 100% self sustaining if we werent afraid of hurting the planet,**
sounds nice, but we are talking about KALIFORNEEYA!!
The endangered species act is FEDERAL, not state, but I quess you don’t know that.
You do realize it's the Feds imposing this idiocy on the good people of California against strong resistance??
The purpose of those water projects was clear. There are intricacies to Western water laws I don't completely understand, but they were put in place as a sort of promise to folks that, should they choose to go out West, there would reliable sources of water to use in strategically important pursuits.
12% of our country's produce output is strategically important. A small run of an unremarkable species of fish is not.