****The ‘poor’ farmers are big agribusiness that took a semi-desert and applied water to it many decades ago.****
Yea, that was like for growing food and stuff. Kinda kept a lot of people alive ya know.
****They saw the shortage coming and connived an underground reservoir away from the state and filled it up with ‘excess’ water in flush years and sold it back to the state at huge profit in shortage years, and kept the massive dividends for themselves****
Yea, big farmers have some mighty big crystal balls...
****Before the ‘farmers’ came you could kayak from San Francisco to Yosemite without a single portage. Salmon and sardines was a multi-million dollar industry, as was recreational fishing****
Six of one a thousand of the other eh...There has been much more food come out of the valley than would have ever come from the fish.
****Meanwhile the ‘farmers’ used aerial irrigation because it was cheaper than drip****
No, they started with aerial because that’s all they had back then and saw no need to switch over the vast expanse to a tech that is much more suited to small areas and indoor growing.
****and brought in illegal aliens to work their corporate fields. And they bred like rabbits and smuggled their families in to join them, and drank water, took showers, washed their cars****
Most all of the workers had and still have visas. The farmer is not required to ship them home when the season is over, they are supposed to do that themselves. But I guess you leftists are now trying to tell us that you agree that there are too many illegals here eh? ya right...
****The state set up their own standards for the sustainability of the Delta, and after years of litigation and demonstrated failure of the state’s ability to balance the needs of people with its stewardship of resources for all, (including Mother Nature), a federal judge found the basis of the standards laughable and shut off the pumps.****
Which is a violation of states rights and should be ignored by the state.
****This is the third year that salmon fishing has been closed to most of the west coast, and we are expecting yet another year to come. The prime game fish are all but gone****
There are many reasons for the decline of the fish populations, one being that the feds won’t let the states remove sea lions from the fish ladders as they kill them and take a bite or two from the soft bellies and discard the rest.
Tell that to Israel.
Which is a violation of states rights and should be ignored by the state.
The operative concept is "the basis of the standards," not States rights.
Most all of the workers had and still have visas. ... ya right...
Visas? In the Central Valley? Most? Ya right...
There are many reasons for the decline of the fish populations, one being that the feds won’t let the states remove sea lions from the fish ladders as they kill them and take a bite or two from the soft bellies and discard the rest.
Sea lions are one of the least important threats when the fish are exposed to massive yearly artificial decreases in the actual amount of water they have to swim in.