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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Peter
Gleick, President,<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pacific
Institute<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/rss/feeds/blogs/sfgate/gleick/index_rss2.xml"><b><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=14
height=14 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.gif@01C9F962.2CD1D4B0"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/rss_icon_citybrights2.gif"></span></b></a><b><span
style='font-size:9.5pt'>| <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/bios">Read Bio</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<h1 style='background:white'><span style='display:none'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/index">City Brights: Peter
Gleick </a><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;
display:none'>Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar came to California on
Sunday to hear firsthand about California's drought. Unfortunately, some of
what he heard was misleading or false. Certainly farms and farmers...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;
display:none'>Truth drought: California's real shortfall<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in;background:#EEEEEE'>
<h4 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:#EEEEEE;border:none;
padding:0in'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'>Tuesday, June 30, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
</div>
<h2 style='background:white'><a name="entry_id_42731"></a><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/detail?blogid=104&entry_id=42731">Truth
drought: California's real shortfall</a><o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Secretary of the Interior
Ken Salazar came to California on Sunday to hear firsthand about California's
drought. Unfortunately, some of what he heard was misleading or false.
Certainly farms and farmers are suffering, so are fish and ecosystems. But so is
the truth. Here are three oft-repeated falsehoods.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Myth 1: Farmers on the west
side of the San Joaquin Valley are receiving "just 10 percent of their
allocation this year." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Myth 2: Water shortages are
causing massive new farm unemployment.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Myth 3: Farmers are bearing
disproportional impacts of water shortfalls because of court rulings in favor
of fish.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>All three of these
statements are false, and they've been shown to be false so many times that
continuing to repeat them verges on intentional deception on the part of those
who repeat them to gullible politicians or lazy reporters.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>1. Farmers in the Central
Valley get water from many places, and when one source dries up, another
temporarily takes its place. In a remarkable letter sent by DWR Director Lester
Snow to Senator Dianne Feinstein on May 15th, official data show that the major
Central Valley districts will use at least 75% of their average water use by
mixing sources, using stored groundwater, participating in water transfers, and
so on. Not 10%. And the biggest moaner is the Westlands Water District. Yet
Snow points out that they will apply at least 86% of their normal water. On the
other hand, the San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuges will get 75% of its
promised water, less than many of the agricultural districts. Some farmers get
less than others in dry years because of their junior water rights -- and they
always have. Are they arguing to revamp the water rights system? That would be
a worthy discussion to have.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>2. The overall job problem
is not a water problem -- it is a result of a global and national economic
crisis. Increases in unemployment are worse, by far, in non-farm industries. In
Fresno County, unemployment today is substantially lower than it was just five
and ten years ago (see Figure 1) and farm employment grew; non-farm employment
shrunk. Indeed, the only sector showing increases in employment in May 2009
(see http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/lfmonth/frsn.pdf) was the farm sector. In
some of the hardest hit areas, unemployment is much higher -- but it is always
much higher. Unemployment rates in Mendota are above 30% now. But you know
what? <a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/story/1501334.html"
target="_blank">Nine years ago, unemployment in Mendota was 30%. Six years ago,
it was 36%.</a> The problem in Mendota isn't just the current drought. The
Central Valley of California has been plagued by poverty and lack of access to
reliable jobs and basic services, like clean drinking water, for decades.
Turning the pumps back on will do little, if anything, to address the systemic
injustice that farm worker communities endure in both wet years and dry.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img
border=0 width=300 height=218 id="Picture_x0020_2"
src="cid:image002.gif@01C9F962.2CD1D4B0"
alt="Figure 1. Fresno County civilian unemployment rate from 1990 to 2008, from the California Employment Development Department, Sacramento, California. While unemployment has grown in the past two years, it is far below what it was in the past decade."></span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/?pageid=166">California EDD data,
2009</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Figure 1. Fresno County
civilian unemployment rate from 1990 to 2008, from the California Employment
Development Department, Sacramento, California. While unemployment has grown in
the past two years, it is far below what it was in the past decade.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>3. It's not the fish. Two
months ago, DWR director Lester Snow testified before Congress that if there
had been no court order to protect fish, CVP deliveries to the San Joaquin
Valley would <a href="http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/24/18603781.php"
target="_blank">only be 5% higher</a>. The problems farmers are facing aren't
due to the tiny portions of water offered up for ecosystems; they are due to a
drought and a dysfunctional water management system that has been slowly
collapsing for decades. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The longer misleading
arguments and facts are put forth to politicians and the media, the longer it
will be before a serious and effective solution can be found to our water
challenges. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
background:white'><span class=author><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Posted
By: <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/author?blogid=104&auth=348">Peter
Gleick</a> (<a
href="mailto:citybrights@sfgate.com?subject=City%20Brights:%20Peter%20Gleick">Email</a>)</span></b></span><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> | <span class=pubdate>Jun 30 at 05:25 AM</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
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