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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Thousands
rally to protest water cuts in Fresno<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=byline1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'>Tracie Cone, Associated Press
Writer<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=date1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'>Thursday, July 2, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><strong>(07-02) 04:00 PDT Fresno</strong> -- <b>Thousands
of farmers, farmworkers and their supporters rallied at City Hall on Wednesday,
calling on federal officials to ease regulations that have cut water supplies
to the nation's most prolific growing region.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:6.0pt'><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222;
text-transform:uppercase'>Images<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/07/02/BAIS18HJP8.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#015660;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=220 height=147 id="Picture_x0020_22"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9FAFD.AADE1200"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/07/01/ba-watermarch02__0500328559_part1.jpg"></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/07/02/BAIS18HJP8.DTL&o=0"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:windowtext;
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color:#015660'><img border=0 width=7 height=7 id="Picture_x0020_23"
src="cid:image002.gif@01C9FAFD.AADE1200"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/graphics/utils/plus-green.gif"></span></span><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;color:#015660;text-decoration:none'>View Larger Image</span></a>
</span><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<ul type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;display:none'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";display:none'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/02/BA4O18HMG9.DTL&type=newsbayarea"><span
style='color:#015660;text-decoration:none'>Transit riders ante up on 1st
day of fare hikes</span></a> 07.02.09<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"Water makes the difference between the
Garden of Eden and Death Valley," said comedian Paul Rodriguez, who acts
as a spokesman for the Latino Water Coalition, a group lobbying for changes in
water delivery policy regarding the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The noon rally was organized by the
grower-funded group, which also organized an April march from Mendota (Fresno
County) to the San Luis Reservoir hoping to draw national attention to the
issue.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>On Wednesday, nearly 4,000 people carrying
professionally printed signs proclaiming, "No water, no jobs, no hope, no
future," marched through downtown. One man who declined to give us name
said his Kettleman City (Kings County) employer had driven him and other
workers there and were paying them for their time. Another woman said she came
with 50 other employees of a Tulare agriculture contractor for free, to protect
their jobs.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Speakers stressed the importance of San
Joaquin Valley agriculture, which they said produces more than half of the
domestically grown U.S. food supply.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"If you like foreign oil, you'll love
foreign food," some signs read.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The rally came on the heels of a visit Sunday
by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who assigned his chief deputy to stay in
California to work full-time on solving the delta's many problems.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Growers, with the help of congressional
delegates from the region, have asked officials to ease federal protections for
threatened fish that have drastically reduced supplies pumped into the state's
vast canal system. Federal agencies have ordered reduced pumping in the delta
when the delta smelt are spawning in the area, leaving nearly empty the San
Luis Reservoir that stores water for farmers and Southern California municipal
users.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Farmers on the west side of Fresno County, the
top-producing agriculture county in the U.S., will receive 10 percent of their
federal water allocation this year as a result of cutbacks and drought that has
led to idled land and layoffs.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Environmental activists and fishing groups say
that without protections for the delta, the fishing industry will continue to
suffer, as will the ocean species that depend on those fish for survival.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>A.G. Kawamura, the director of the California
Department of Food and Agriculture, said he came to march because "without
a water system that has predictability," the state's agriculture
infrastructure will collapse.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Farmer Joe Del Bosque, who owns 2,500 acres in
western Madera County, said he had planted only half of his land this year
because he doesn't have a well to supplement this year's water allocation.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"I don't know what I'm going to do,"
he said. "I'm completely dependent on surface water."<o:p></o:p></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>
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