In her long and mostly distinguished career, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has championed many environmental causes. At times she has also challenged environmentalists to consider interests other than their own.<\/p>\n
That’s good. Feinstein’s independent streak is one of her assets as a U.S. senator and a leader of California.<\/p>\n
Feinstein, however, also has been known to take reckless stands. She is doing so now, with plans to amend a fast-moving jobs bill to reduce Endangered Species Act protections for fish, including salmon, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. <\/p>\n
Feinstein’s amendment, if enacted, would increase Delta pumping to benefit certain farms in the San Joaquin Valley. Those agricultural operations, ranging from small farms to lucrative corporate empires, have seen their irrigation supplies drop due to drought and court decisions involving Delta smelt and other fish. <\/p>\n
In a statement Thursday, Feinstein said she was seeking this amendment because, in so many words, water is being wasted. “Water has been gushing past the canals and into the oceans while farms on the west side of the valley are likely to receive a very low percentage of their water allocations,” she said.<\/p>\n
Feinstein is grossly oversimplifying the water situation in the Delta and the valley. <\/p>\n
At certain times of the year, juvenile salmon and other fish need adequate flows to reach the ocean or to avoid being sucked into the giant pumps that deliver water to Southern California, the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley. Feinstein’s amendment threatens those fish. It could be especially harmful to California’s salmon runs, which shrank to record low numbers in 2009, according to a report last week by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.<\/p>\n
Feinstein’s action poses other threats. For the last two years, moderate environmental groups have been working with water exporters on a conservation plan for the Delta. This coalition helped pass water legislation last year and is studying plans for a canal, tunnel or other form of conveyance for the Delta. That could possibly reduce conflicts over fish and produce more reliable water supplies for exporters.<\/p>\n
Yet if Feinstein’s amendment were to pass, it would likely end this delicate detente and lead to years of more litigation and fighting over the Delta. <\/p>\n
Feinstein should be smart enough to know this. The question is: Is she smart enough to acknowledge that she’s made a serious error in judgment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In her long and mostly distinguished career, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has championed many environmental causes. At times she has also challenged environmentalists to consider interests other than their own. That’s good. Feinstein’s independent streak is one of her assets as a U.S. senator and a leader of California. Feinstein, however, also has been known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}