Despair flows as fields go dry and unemployment rises
In a state that is virtually bankrupt… the number one on the list of American states ready to fail, while having the eighth largest economy and largest population in the Country, how could the Federal government allow, no order, the water turned off to the San Joaquin Valley to save a minnow??
In July, Alana Semuels for the Los Angeles Times wrote:
MENDOTA, CALIF — Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse, the breadbasket of America. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl.
Farmers have idled half a million acres of once-productive ground and are laying off legions of farmhands. That's sending joblessness soaring in a region already plagued by chronic poverty.
Water scarcity looms as a major challenge to California's $37-billion agricultural industry, which has long relied on imported water to bloom. The consequences of closing the spigot are already evident here in rural Fresno County, about 230 miles north of Los Angeles. Lost farm revenue will top $900 million in the San Joaquin Valley this year, said UC Davis economist Richard Howitt, who estimates that water woes will cost the recession-battered region an additional 30,000 jobs in 2009.
Standing in a parched field in 104-degree heat, valley farmer Joe Del Bosque pointed to cracked earth where tomatoes should be growing. He didn't bother this year because he can't get enough water to irrigate them. He's cultivating only about half of the cantaloupe and asparagus that he did in 2007. He has slashed his workforce, and his bills are mounting.
"We can't survive at 10% of our water," said Del Bosque, 60, a white cowboy hat, long sleeves and jeans protecting him from the blistering sun.
CONGRESS CREATED DUST BOWL?
With the unemployment on the rise in the state, 11.5 percent for May (2009), Governor Schwarzenegger last Friday afternoon activated the California Disaster Assistance Act for Fresno County and called for the federal government to make a federal disaster declaration for the county.
But this declaration unlike those used in response to the destruction caused by natural disasters is in response to providing temporary supplemental assistance to local governments and non-profit organizations that supply food and other aid to those who are impacted by the drought statewide. The order also waives the one-week waiting period for unemployment insurance.
Driving through the Central Valley, specifically along Interstate 5, the impact from the combination of the three years of drought is very noticeable as many fields lie fallow and signs dot the former farm lands claiming you are viewing a 'Congress Created Dust Bowl.' Studies estimate that as of May, the lack of water in the San Joaquin Valley, California's Central Valley has cost 35,000 jobs and $830 million in farm revenue.
Read Full Article
The article goes on to say: “U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are calling on President Obama to issue a federal disaster declaration for Fresno County to assist the region in obtaining emergency food, job training, crisis counseling, legal services and unemployment assistance. The federal assistance would help thousands of Fresno County residents who have lost their jobs and are struggling to feed their families because of severe drought conditions.
Interesting… because Dianne Feinstein has links to the CFR and Senator Boxer is one of main proponents of Cap and Trade which will lead to the signing of the Copenhagen Climate Bill and trigger the parts of AGENDA 21 that have not already been implemented. – UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs - http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/
Dead and Dying–California’s Central Valley Dust Bowl
We took a drive this week from Sacramento to Los Angeles, and had an eye opening experience. Down the entire length of the 5 freeway, we saw not the green luscious fields of produce or green orchards laden with fruit, but dusty dead and dying orchards. Rows after row, acres after acre, miles after mile of them, perfectly formed, perfectly helpless… lifeless.
By way of explanation, these signs dotted the dusty dry roadside: “Congress Created Dust Bowl. Thank You Sacramento!”
California’s orchards aren’t getting a drop of water this year despite the best rainfall in three years and five reservoirs filled to over capacity?!?
There’s no doubt that we’re in a drought, but why the sudden drop in water availability only for farmers? Are the politicians in Sacramento more concerned about the plethora of city votes than the small handful of agricultural ones? We will all be paying for Sacramento’s blunder. The Central Valley provides up to 8% of the nation’s fresh produce.
Watching the staggering waste makes your heart ache. We had to pull over and take pictures. The contrast from the past green was stark—it takes 30 years to build an orchard to full production! Almonds, walnuts, citrus… Why do we have green lawns in the rest of the state while these resources, food for the nation, are left to die?
Thanks for your input Beetle Blogger
Just the other day (Nov 19, 2009), my husband made the drive north from Orange County to San Jose. He said the sight was devastating!! No crops, no green, just a dust and dirt in every direction as far as the eye can see... two full months after Sean Hannity (see below) California Representatives and others held a rally for awareness of the problem.
A few weeks ago, Ty and Janet Lompa were doing the unthinkable: cutting down 110 acres of walnut orchards. That’s roughly 10,000 trees and a third of their entire acreage.
“It takes 30 years to get ‘em here,” says Janet Lompa, “and about a minute and a half to knock ‘em down.”
Ty Lompa helped plant many of these trees with his father, and they used to water the orchard with flood irrigation from the project built by the federal government. But when water started to become an issue, “we immediately switched over to micro-irrigation,” says Lompa. “So we have absolutely no runoff.”
But the Lompas’ farm relied entirely on federal water — they have no groundwater of their own. They can keep part of their orchard alive with water they carried over from last year, but the rest can’t be saved.
“You can’t leave trees in the field and just let ‘em die,” Ty Lompa says. “You’re gonna get bugs, you’re gonna get disease, so they have to come down.”
The Lompas are furious because they blame government, not nature, for the death of their trees. And Janet Lompa tells her four children that “the politicians gave it all to the fish” when they ask why there’s no water.
Politics Takes Control
Farmers throughout this region echo the sentiment that politics, not the drought, is the problem. Most of California gets its water from a huge estuary called the Delta, where two big rivers join in the center of the valley. But so much water was being pumped out of the Delta that a tiny smelt there, an endangered species, is disappearing. So late last year, a federal judge ruled that the amount of water being delivered to the south had to be sharply cut back.
In April, in a sweltering tin shed in the middle of the Westland’s water district, about 200 farmers gathered to hear what Tom Birmingham had to say about the crisis. Birmingham is the executive director of the irrigation district. Yes, the drought is a problem, he says, but he believes the much bigger problem is that court ruling.
“Since mid-February, as a result of that biological opinion, we’ve lost approximately 300,000 acre-feet of water. It’s floated out the Golden Gate.”
That means it was given to the fish.
“The state of California has gone from 15 million people when these projects were built 50 years ago, to almost 30 million,” Gary Coehlo says. “And we haven’t added one bit of water, storage, conveyance, dams — anything. Now, the need for water has become greater, and they’re gonna dry us up,” adds Tony Coehlo.
Does any of this make sense?? Would the Federal government really shut off water and cause a dust bowl? Could it really take months and months to hold hearings until one of the major food production areas in America is destroyed? Could a bankrupt State and Federal Government really choose to add thousands upon thousands of people onto the unemployment and welfare rolls? Could a bankrupt State and failing Federal government really choose to cut off a major food supply, causing increases in the cost of groceries to a public that is facing somewhere between 10 and 20% unemployment… on purpose?
I have heard 5 television hosts in the past 3 days say they fear that the government's plan is to put the American People and America itself into such dire straights that they will beg the government… and then the United Nations to help us and takeover… Have we really become that lethargic and dumbed down that we are willing to let that happen?
Have you ever heard of and checked the information on Agenda 21 – a treaty signed, brought back and implemented under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton?? If you haven't I suggest you do your homework quickly!!
Update (Sept 2009): After Sean Hannity's visit, rally and coverage, Senators DeMint and McCain went to the matt to bring water back to the central valley of California. Who stopped them? California Senators Boxer and Feinstein… and was certainly prompted by Speaker Pelosi.
Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity travelled to California’s Central Valley to help bring national attention to the on-going water crisis.
Water activists say after nearly a dozen marches and protests, it’s time to try something different, so last Thursday Hannity broadcasted his national show from a dry, dirt field west of the Fresno/Kings County line.
The Federal government has cut off water to the bread basket of America and refuses to turn it back on.
Since Hannity’s visit Senators DeMint and McCain drafted legislation to get the water flowing…
"Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people." …Henry Kissenger, former US Secy of State, member Carlisle Group etc etc
Response 9/23/09:
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U.S. Senate to California Farmers: Drop Dead
Demonstrating once again the moonbat priorities of the Democratic Senate majority, the Senate has voted to screw over hundreds of thousands of farmers and endanger our national food supply for the sake of a two-inch fish that probably isn't endangered anyway.
Because of the ruling of Moonbat Judge Oliver Wanger, millions of gallons of freshwater that could be growing crops and providing livelihoods to hundreds of thousands of people are washing uselessly into the sea. Farmers are facing bankruptcy and tens of thousands are out of work.
California's dingbat senators Dianne Feinstein and Babs "Ma'am" Boxer stood by and did nothing to correct this insanity. It took a Republican from South Carolina, Jim DeMint, to try and rescue California's farmers by proposing an amendment to restore water to the farmers in the San Joaquin valley. Guess what? Senate Demoncrats... including both dingbat senators from California... voted it down. And Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has interfered to keep the water turned off several times before.
Update: Senior Dingbat Dianne Feinstein compares supplying Farmers with water to "Pear Harbor."
Source: Moonbattery
The question needs to be WHY?? Why is our own government shutting off the water to the most fertile areas in California if not all of America?
This is what they do in countries like Venezuala… Iran… or the old Soviet Union, countries run by Obama’s friends!!! Putting the Delta Smelt before people? Creating food shortages so we are more dependant on foreign supplies to push their global agenda or New World Order? Creating an emergency to impose even more control, cut more freedoms and grab more power?
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Feds shut off water to California farms in controversial effort to help threatened species
By NewsWax | Aug 12, 2009
A farming town in California claims that it may disappear due to the United States federal government shutting off water pumps, though the government states the actions are necessary to save several marine species.
In July 2009, action by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation to protect threatened fish stopped irrigation pumping to parts of the California Central Valley causing canals leading into Huron, California and the surrounding areas and the farms that rely on them to lose their primary irrigation source. Unemployment has reached 40% in some areas as the farms have dried up.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated the action is putting the fish “above the needs of millions of Californians.”
Highlighting the city’s plight, Huron Police Chief Frank Steenport stated, “A year from now, [Huron] may not be here.”
In an interview on Tuesday, comedian Paul Rodriguez, the mother of whom owns a farm in the area, criticized the actions of the government and called for President Barack Obama to review the decision. “This used to be an almond orchard. Now all that is left is firewood.”
Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, a nonprofit association of 27 public agencies from across California that purchase water from the government under contract, said “these cuts are crippling on our people and businesses — especially in the Central Valley where farmers are being forced to fallow their land and workers are being laid off. Rather than piecemeal restrictions, we need to balance the needs of the environment and the needs of people with a collective plan for the Delta.”
The National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, states the water pumping inside central California threatens several marine species. In the Huron area, the delta smelt is specifically targeted.
In defense of the actions, Rod McInnis, the southwest regional director for NOAA’s Fisheries Service stated, “What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them. We are ready to work with our federal and state partners, farmers and residents to find solutions that benefit the economy, environment and Central Valley families.”
Delta Smelt
Delta smelt, Hypomesus transpacificus, are slender-bodied smelts, about 5 to 7 cm long, of the Osmeridae family. They have a steely blue sheen on the sides and seem almost translucent. Smelts live together in schools and feed on zooplankton (small fishes and invertebrates). One female may lay from 1,400 to 1,800 eggs. Mature unfertilized eggs are about 1 mm.
Habitat
Delta smelt are currently endemic to the Sacramento Delta, California, where it is distributed from the Suisun Bay upstream through the Delta in Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties. The delta smelt is a pelagic (live in the open water column away from the bottom) and euryhaline species (tolerant of a wide salinity range). They have been collected from estuarine waters up to 14 ppt (parts per thousand) salinity.
Life cycle
Most delta smelt live one year and die after their first spawning (semelparous). Delta smelt spawning occurs in spring in river channels and tidally influenced backwater sloughs upstream of the mixing zone (saltwater-freshwater interface). The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers then transport the delta smelt larvae downstream to the mixing zone, normally located in the Suisun Bay. Young delta smelt then feed and grow in the mixing zone before starting their upstream spawning migration in late fall or early winter.
Delta smelt are preyed upon by larger fish, especially striped bass and largemouth bass which are invasive species in the Sacramento Delta.[1]
Delta smelt used to be a common fish in the Sacramento - San Joaquin rivers estuary. The population is much smaller than historically and the species was listed in 1993 as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) and Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA) (Federal Register 58:12863; March 5, 1993). Critical habitat was listed for delta smelt on December 19, 1994 (Federal Register 59:65256). In 2008, the California Fish and Game Commission moved to uplist delta smelt to endangered under CESA.
Court protection
On August 31, 2007, California Federal Judge Oliver Wanger of Federal District Court protected the rare declining fish delta smelt by severely curtailing human use water deliveries at San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta from December to June. [2] It should be noted that these are the pumps at the Banks Pumping Plant that send water to Central and Southern California for agricultural and residential use. As a result of this ruling, large portions of the heavily-agricultural western San Joaquin Valley have been denied water allocations used for farmland irrigation. This, in conjunction with the persistent drought affecting the region, has caused large amounts of farmland to become fallowed.
Source: mensnewsdaily.com
When Khadafi says Obama should remain president forever, they are ‘teargassing’ protesters in Pittsburgh outside the G20 and not reporting it until story appears in British press,Hugo Chavez openly invites Obama to join the Dictator’s Club in his UN speech, and Obama has filled the White House with czars, cabinet members and even a few approved positions with radicals who believe it is okay to nudge the system, control the masses and are filled with ideas like minnows are more important than people… it is past time to take notice!!
“When you control the food supply… you control everything!”…Remember who said that??
The Obama Administration and the radicals in Washington are consistently testing the American People: the TARP and Stimulus swindles, the Patriot Act, Net Neutrality, the Hate Crimes Bill Stuck in with another Bill, the House passing Cap and Trade, the PelosiCare Bill, just the other day HC rationing the announcement that now mammograms are not needed until age 50 and then every other year, no longer securing our borders, taking away our rights... one by one, ludicrous gun laws, even Fed Income Tax (there is nothing in the Constitution that allows Federal Income Tax or Federal Healthcare). If we let it go, allow it, or don't remove the officials responsible... we lose - they win!
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Manasquan, NJ -- Remember all those who denied that firearms confiscation as a result of New York's new gun laws was too "insane" to even consider?
There's just one huge problem it is happening now in New York State!
James Tresmond Esq confirmed in our conversation that the above mentioned case is occurring in Erie County NY, it is his client that has been effected, and as yet unknown sources have seen fit to take it upon themselves to share confidential medical records with NY State Officials without authorization, a massive HIPPA violation.
Last week, the House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing about the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act. The bill, which is co-authored by valley Republicans Devin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy, and Jeff Denham, generated strong opposition from Democrat lawmakers but has the backing of a re-invigorated Republican Conference and its leadership.
