[env-trinity] Salazar responds to WSJ Editorial on smelt

[Emelia Berol]

I am glad to read Mr. Salazar's reasoned response to the WSJ editorial.

He writes that the Central Valley grows half the nation's produce. Over the past 10 years I have noticed that whether I am in Albuquerque, Washington D.C., or New York City, at least all the organic produce I can find is from California. Why is that? 

Am I the only one who thinks it strange that half the country is incapable of growing its own produce? Could it be that our national ag policies need rebuilding as much as our outdated state water delivery systems? 

Emelia Berol

 



________________________________
From: Tom Stokely <tstokely at att.net>
To: Trinity List <env-trinity at crank.dcn.davis.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 5:40:23 PM
Subject: [env-trinity] Salazar responds to WSJ Editorial on smelt

 
I think Mr. Salazar is right on.
 
Tom Stokely
Water Policy 
Coordinator
California Water Impact Network
504A Lennon St. (USPS and 
UPS)
Mt Shasta, CA 96067
V/FAX 530-926-9727
Cell 530-524-0315
tstokely at att.net
http://www.c-win.org/
 
Begin forwarded message:


From: Brian Smith <bsmith at earthjustice.org>
>Date: September 9, 2009 3:52:49 
>  PM PDT
>To: "David Nesmith (dnesmith at ewccalifornia.org)" 
>  <dnesmith at ewccalifornia.org>
>Subject: Salazar responds to WSJ 
>  Editorial on smelt
>
>Excerpt from Wall Street 
>  Journal Letters to the Editor:
>Your editorial "California's Man-Made Drought" (Sept. 2) about 
>  the severe drought and water crisis in California argues that California's 
>  water problems could be wished away if our nation were only willing to 
>  sacrifice an endangered three-inch fish, turn on a few pumps to move water 
>  from Northern California to the Central Valley, and wave a magic wand. The 
>  trouble is: The fish are a sliver of the problem, the pumps are already on, 
>  and pointed fingers can't make it rain.
>California's water crisis is 
>  far more troubling than your editorial suggests. The state is in its third 
>  year of a devastating drought, caused by a lack of precipitation. In 
>  California's Central Valley, where half the nation's produce is grown, many 
>  farms and fields are bone dry, unemployment has surged, and the state's 
>  inadequate water infrastructure—built 
>  50 years ago for a population half as large—cannot handle the stress. Moreover, 
>  California's Bay Delta, upon which 25 million Californians depend for drinking 
>  water, is in a state of full environmental collapse.
>As a proposed response, your 
>  editorial asks the Obama administration to ignore science and convene a 
>  so-called "God Squad" that would override protections on watersheds and turn 
>  California's water crisis over to the courts. Trying to force more water out 
>  of a dying system will only cause more human tragedy, while diverting 
>  attention from the governor and the legislature, who face a Sept. 11 
>  legislative deadline to decide whether to fix the broken water system in 
>  California after decades of neglect.
>Rather than more finger 
>  pointing, we need real solutions. After eight years on the sidelines, the 
>  federal government has stepped in to help. The Obama administration is 
>  investing over $400 million through the president's economic recovery plan to 
>  help modernize California's water infrastructure, including over $40 million 
>  in emergency assistance to help water-short Central Valley farmers. We have 
>  helped move record amounts of water to communities in most need and are taking 
>  steps to prepare for a potential fourth year of drought. And perhaps most 
>  importantly, the federal government is now engaging as a full partner in the 
>  collaborative process that the governor launched two years ago to restore the 
>  Bay Delta, and modernize the state's woefully outdated water infrastructure. 
>  Though what we need most is rain and snow to fill the reservoirs, these 
>  actions will help mitigate the devastating impact of the ongoing drought and 
>  deliver help to the families and communities suffering most.
>This is the type of 
>  locally-driven, solution-oriented, collaborative approach that we must all 
>  support—and to which we must all 
>  contribute.
>Ken Salazar
>Secretary of the 
>  Interior
>Washington
> 
> 
> 



      
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