<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><h1 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-top: 11px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.44em; ">California Republicans' brazen water grab</h1><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.86em; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="date" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.86em; ">Thursday, February 16, 2012</p><div class="sidebar"><div id="objecthumbs" style="width: 600px; margin-top: 14px; "><div class="clear" style="clear: left; "></div></div></div><span id="articlebody" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.44em; "><p>House Republicans are poised to pass legislation that would usurp California's ability to manage its own water supply, harm the San Francisco Bay Estuary ecosystem and drive California's salmon to extinction.</p><p>Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Alpaugh (Tulare County), wrote the bill to reverse the way water is allocated in California. It essentially ensures water supplies for farmers by taking it from the state's native salmon, trout and other fisheries.</p><p>Beyond that, it:</p><p>-- Undermines water conservation efforts.</p><p>-- Dries up a 40-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River - the state's second largest - by ending the restoration project that saw salmon returning two years ago for the first time in more than 60 years.</p><p>-- Ends the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process but does nothing to address the problems of water supply and quality the plan seeks to address.</p><p>In short, it promotes the agribusiness interests of Nunes' district over other interests and upends the collaborative efforts to distribute California's limited water supply fairly.</p><p>Northern California water interests had objected to an earlier version because it required them to make up the water for the fish that Nunes' would deliver to San Joaquin Valley farms. The new version exempts them from providing water for fish, so they are on board.</p><p>Democrat Rep. Jerry McNerney, who represents both San Joaquin Valley farmers and the delta, says this: "To steal water from one community to benefit another is unconscionable."</p><p>We agree. The House should reject this brazen water grab.</p></span><p id="url" style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.86em; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/16/EDTP1N811L.DTL">http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/16/EDTP1N811L.DTL</a> </p><p id="pageno" style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.86em; font-style: italic; ">This article appeared on page <strong>A - 13</strong> of the San Francisco Chronicle</p></span></body></html>