SFGate.com Reported First: First came the urgent e-mail to two Cabinet secretaries from San Joaquin Valley farm interests, demanding that officials allow “maximum pumping” of water from recent storms for agriculture and cities and minimize flows for endangered fish making their river migrations amid the worst drought in years.
Two days later, on March 25, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein allied herself with the same Central Valley House Republicans she had criticized just weeks earlier for trying to override endangered species laws. In an urgent letter to the Cabinet secretaries, Feinstein and the Republicans echoed the farming groups, calling for capturing “the maximum amount of water from this week’s storm.”
By April 2, state and federal water officials said they had temporarily “adjusted” environmental rules to divert water from the season’s last rains to reservoirs and away from rivers where endangered chinook salmon, steelhead trout and other fish are migrating. On Wednesday, they said they would keep the changes in place through June.
“If this is done the wrong way, they can kill the salmon, they can damage delta communities’ drinking water, and it doesn’t solve anything at the other end,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, a St. Helena Democrat who has battled Feinstein on salmon protections. “It just throws a little water on it.”
Economic survival
Feinstein sits on the Appropriations Committee, which funds the agencies that she lobbied last month. She said the survival of farms that help feed the country and form the economic backbone of the San Joaquin Valley were at stake.
“I have lived in California all my life and never have I seen drier conditions,” Feinstein said in a written response to questions about her actions. “At least a half-million acres are being fallowed, drinking water is endangered and countless jobs are at risk. For months I have been advocating that federal agencies use whatever flexibilities are available to them to pump as much water as they can within the law and human health and safety requirements, and I continue to stand by that position.”
Feinstein’s letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, whose agencies are responsible for protecting fish, was joined by the Republican House members backing drought legislation that would override the Endangered Species Act. Fresno Democratic Rep. Jim Costa, who voted for the Republican bill when it passed in the House in February, also signed the letter.
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