‘Save Our Water’ Push Gathers Steam
July 30, 2009 Key civic, business, and agricultural leaders have stepped up to support Pacific Legal Foundation’s “Save our Water, Save Our Jobs” petition campaign, an effort to avert what the group terms an even more severe “regulatory drought” in California’s San Joaquin Valley and the southern part of the state.
An article, “A Regulatory Drought,” appears in the July issue of American/Western Fruit Grower. In addition, there is also coverage of the efforts of pistachio grower Larry Easterling, who is suing the government over reduced water supplies with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation.
The signature-gathering drive, which runs through August 19, urges President Barack Obama and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to act to convene a special federal panel, commonly known as the “God Squad,” to address California’s water emergency caused by harsh federal environmental restrictions. The petition can be accessed at PLF’s Web site: www.pacificlegal.org.
Those who have added their support include Rep. George Radanovich (R-Fresno), the California Chamber of Commerce, the United Agribusiness League; and the Western Growers Association. “Join me in signing Pacific Legal Foundation’s petition and send the radical environmentalists in Washington and Sacramento a message: when it comes to water policy, humans come before fish,” said Radanovich in a release on his Web site. (http://radanovich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=136830).
In its news release, the California Chamber of Commerce called for the the state’s businesses to take action. “The CalChamber is encouraging California businesses to sign the petition to urge Governor Schwarzenegger to use his authority to ask the federal government to convene the Endangered Species Committee to exempt the operations of state and federal water delivery systems from measures that will inflict serious economic and social harm on millions of Californians.” (http://www.calchamber.com/Headlines/Pages/CalChamberUrgesBusinessestoSupportPetitiontoSaveWaterJobs.aspx).
The Endangered Species Committee, termed “The God Squad,” is a panel of cabinet officials that can countermand Endangered Species Act restrictions that cause excessive destruction to jobs and the economy. “Water cutbacks caused by drastic federal environmental regulations have already caused devastation for San Joaquin Valley farmers, farmworkers, rural communities, and cities,” PLF President Rob Rivett said. “Now, new federal restrictions have been proposed that will exacerbate the water crisis in California. The Endangered Species Committee – the ‘God Squad’ – must be convened to save the California economy from an even more destructive government-caused water crisis.”
A governor may formally petition for the convening of the Committee. PLF’s “Save our Water” petition urges Governor Schwarzenegger to submit such a request, and urges President Obama to make sure his administration acts favorably on it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has imposed devastating cutbacks on water pumping into California’s main water system as part of a regulatory scheme to protect the Delta smelt.
Now, sweeping new reductions in water supplies loom as part of a “biological opinion” relating to several other species, including chinook salmon and steelhead. These further cuts in pumping and water supplies are estimated to remove an additional 500,000 acre-feet of water, the amount that is required to serve two million people annually.
“Without relief from the God Squad, the harsh enforcement of rigid environmental rules will inflict more pain and suffering in a state that is already enduring its worst unemployment in more than 60 years,” said PLF’s Rivett. “PLF’s emergency petition asks that the God Squad be convened as quickly as possible.”
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