<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>The Pacific Legal Foundation's press release is located at <a href="http://www.pacificlegal.org/page.aspx?pid=1612">http://www.pacificlegal.org/page.aspx?pid=1612</a> </div><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
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</v:shape><![endif]--><img width="182" height="57" src="file:///Users/tomstokely/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_image006.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">PRESS RELEASE</span></font></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">For Immediate Release June
24, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Contact: Carolee
Krieger, C-WIN 805-969-0824<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> Bill
Jennings, CSPA 209-464-5067<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance 530-519-7468 <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Environmental Groups Respond to Pacific Legal
Foundation<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> on Delta Smelt
Lawsuit<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Fresno –
Environmental groups are publicly questioning the basis of Pacific Legal
Foundation's lawsuit challenging the legal basis of Endangered Species Act
protections for the Delta Smelt. The
lawsuit is one of many recent lawsuits based on Westland Water District’s
claims of huge reductions in irrigated acreage on the West side of the San
Joaquin Valley as a result of Endangered Species Act restrictions on Delta pumping.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">New research has raised serious questions about the veracity
of Westlands' claims. California Water
Research Associates recently issued a report showing that 100,000 acres of land,
which Westlands claimed was fallowed as a result of Delta pumping restrictions,
was actually retired because of toxic salt and boron contamination of soils
adversely affecting agricultural production.</span></font><a href="x-msg://43/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">[1]</span></font></span></span></span></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">“Westlands Water District has been making extremely
misleading claims for years about the causes of fallowed land in the district,”
said Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of the California Water Impact
Network. “The fact is, the soils in the
district have become waterlogged and contaminated with salt and boron. As a result, the use of the land for agriculture
is severely impaired and it continues to get worse.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">The west side of the San Joaquin Valley is former alkali
desert that has been reclaimed only by dumping tons of gypsum on the ground to
bind naturally occurring salts, and leaching the soil with subsidized imported Delta water. In Westlands Water District, the leaching
and irrigation of water-intensive crops such as cotton and almonds has
generated extensive subsurface build up of saline water that has accumulated in
the eastern part of the district, impairing over 200,000 acres so far and
immediately threatens another 100,000 acres, according to the Bureau of
Reclamation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">For the last decade, Westlands has been buying land from
owners who are ready to give up trying to farm the waterlogged, saline
soils. The district is reallocating the
water to less impaired land within the district, and in the last year, has been
transferring the surplus to Metropolitan Water District.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Much of the land and groundwater within Westlands also
contains high concentrations of selenium, a trace mineral that can be extremely
toxic to wildlife and to humans. One of
the hot spots of selenium toxicity is just south of Mendota. The US government purchased 37,000 acres and
attached covenants forbidding irrigation of the land with ground or surface
water, before giving the lands to Westlands Water District to manage.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">As a result, Westlands Water District now owns about 100,000
acres of salty poisoned land, which has been retired from irrigated
production. The largest extent of
impaired land is south of Mendota. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">“The simple fact is that restrictions on pumping Delta water
have nothing to do with the fallowing of Westlands' 100,000 acres of retired
land,” said Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “Blaming the farmers’ problems on the Delta
smelt and the Endangered Species Act is a red herring masking the Pacific Legal
Foundation’s philosophical objections to the concept of protecting endangered
species. Delta smelt is simply the
canary in the coal mine representing the collapse of the biological tapestry in
the Bay-Delta estuary. The land is
fallowed because of the legacy of greed and over-irrigation of marginal lands.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Decades of over-irrigation of toxic, saline soils in the
district has also contaminated much of the shallow and deep groundwater in the
district. There are large areas that
have no groundwater fit for drinking or irrigation. Kettleman City, at the southern end of
Westlands, is trying to find money for a water treatment system to remove
arsenic in the city’s wells, another legacy of over-irrigation of west side
soils.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Westlands has implied that more water would bring the land
around Mendota back into production, but over a million acre feet of water in
2011 has not helped. Unemployment has
actually increased since 2009.
“Westlands needs to admit that the retired land has been poisoned, not
taken out of production because of Endangered Species Act restrictions on Delta
pumping.” said Krieger. Barbara Vlamis
of AquAlliance in Chico said “They have created a huge toxic, salty mess on the
west side, and that's a big reason why the land is fallowed and West side towns
are suffering. They don’t need more water from the Sacramento Valley, they need
less water. Sean Hannity was hoodwinked.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Westlands' reported
fallowed acreage:<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">2009: 156,000 acres retired land (est.): 64%<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">2010: 123,000 acres retired land
(est.): 81%<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">2011: 125,000 acres
(est.) retired land (est.):
80%<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Source: Westlands
2009 & 2010 crop reports, 2011 Annual Water Use and Supply<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Unemployment in west
side towns:<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Mendota
April 2011:
42.7% April
2009 38.2%<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Firebaugh:
April 2011:
28.8% April 2009: 25.1%<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Huron:
April 2011:
35.7% April 2009: 31.5%<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Tranquility:
April 2011
19.5% April 2009:
16.8%<o:p></o:p></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Source: California Employment Development Department</span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">###</span></font></p><div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">
<div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="x-msg://43/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="X-NONE"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">[1]</span></font></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="X-NONE"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> See </span></font><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/56909617/Mendota-Evidence-that-soil-and-groundwater-salinization-is-the-predominant-cause-of-land-fallowing"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">http://www.scribd.com/doc/56909617/Mendota-Evidence-that-soil-and-groundwater-salinization-is-the-predominant-cause-of-land-fallowing</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </span></font></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font></div></div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></font><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">Tom Stokely<br>Water Policy Analyst/Media Contact<br>California Water Impact Network<br>V/FAX 530-926-9727<br>Cell 530-524-0315<br><a href="mailto:tstokely@att.net">tstokely@att.net</a><br>http://www.c-win.org</span></font></div></div></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">
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