| When is enough enough? |
| Thursday, 22 October 2009 09:58 |
When is enough enough? Environmentalists sued the federal government to force reductions in Delta water exports to protect the threatened Delta smelt. Those reductions cost San Joaquin Valley farmers and 25 million Californians hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water this year and so far it looks like it did absolutely no good. An article in the October 22, 2009 Sacramento Bee indicated that water supply cuts intended to help the smelt had resulted in little or no effect in its recovery. The Bay Institute’s Tina Swanson said in the article that pumping restrictions were never intended to drive a rebound in the species. The rules are meant to prevent extinction, and Swanson said they're working. If that’s so, why did the environmentalists stop short in their lawsuit in asking for provisions that would recover the species? Did they plan to come back later for a second cut at water supplies that is necessary to recover the species? Or were they simply wrong in their assertion that export pumps are the cause of Delta smelt population declines? |
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