It seems that accusing others of the exact things you are guilty of is becoming a customary practice. That is exactly what is happening right now with Central Valley water.
It was about four years ago when headline after headline wrongly accused the Federal administration of playing politics with our water in the updating of Biological Opinions regarding Delta Smelt and Chinook Salmon in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.
Most don’t find reading a story about Biological Opinions particularly interesting until they realize these rules and guidelines effect the management of water to millions of acres which grow their food and millions of people who live in places only made possible by this very water supply.
The effort afoot to secretively complete draft opinions before the election is likely the most actual work these agencies have done in the previous four years.
This stunning abuse of public trust continues despite immense and growing outcry by people affected by their actions who are being shut out of the process. The lack of transparency on an issue effecting so many is astounding, and the latest developments are alarming to say the least.
Farmers, ranchers, and disadvantaged communities are about to get blind sided by state and federal agencies and will be asking once again, “How much water did they take and waste this time?”
The cornerstone of the Central Valley Project is Shasta Reservoir with a storage capacity of 4 million acre-feet of water. The draft document from regulating agencies proposes to make an additional one million acre-feet of water practically Off-Limits to water users by rededicating it to a cold-water supply for salmon.
Here we ago again with the same condescending voices who preach loudly for us all to follow the science, not following the science at all.
Radical environmental groups who consist of only donors and lawyers have no problem with farms, ranches, and disadvantaged communities in the Valley going extinct.
Yet, the United States Bureau of Reclamation whose customers are primarily Sacramento and Central Valley farms and farming communities who rely on water from the Central Valley Project have foolishly bowed down to these radical and extreme groups.
The secret surrender by the United States Bureau of Reclamation includes adopting the State of California’s most punitive practices and regulations to the detriment of people, jobs, environment, and economy of the state.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service are proposing that the Voluntary Agreements – which will take even more water and wealth away from the Valley – be a new Endangered Species Act compliance requirement in the Biological Opinions.
It is imperative we understand the current politics being played with our water.
These people, including radical environmental groups, unbelievably continue to refer to and would like to revert to the 2008-2009 Biological Opinions as if they were a righteous basis for saving all the fish in the Delta. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What their so-called science at the time was successful in achieving was the disappearance of fish, hundreds of thousands of food growing acres fallowed, lost jobs, and decline in the quality of life for millions of people.
At the end of that disastrous period, consultation began on rewriting Biological Opinions under the Obama Administration.
With a decade of data in hand, new BiOps were completed in 2019 after being given the okay by the same agencies who seek to now destroy them. This is politics in water here in California and people, farmers, and the country pay the price every single time they suck another acre-foot of water away from humans and direct it to the ocean.
We must understand millions of acre-feet of water are at stake behind their closed doors. It is time for voices to be loud enough that these doors blow wide open for everyone to see and contribute as should be the case.
The trampling of public participation and transparency must stop and can only be described as a great fear of an outcome in an upcoming election. In total disregard for millions of people, their secretive process will have negative long-lasting and very real effects on millions of people if allowed to continue.
State and federal agencies must pump the brakes and listen to the public. They must allow for a real and legitimate process to hear public comments and adopt meaningful and sound water management policy that will help all users.
While they are treating their political and bureaucratic careers as a vehicle to further an agenda they are running over livelihoods with no care. The total and complete disregard for people should be on full display for all to see, not behind closed doors.
