Lawmakers hear pleas as drought threatens future supplies.
A congressional subcommittee in Fresno on Monday heard dire predictions of what another year of drought could bring, along with a continuing litany of what the crisis has already spawned -- rising crime, joblessness that may be as high as 50% in Mendota and record-high school expulsions.
The meeting drew about 250 people to the Fresno City Council chambers.
Tom Birmingham, Westlands Irrigation District general manager, said if the drought continues into 2009, the crisis is certain to spill into urban communities south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. And he said farmers who receive federal water are likely to get "zero to 10%" of their full allocation.
Birmingham said it's estimated this year's drought alone will mean 23% of Westlands' full-time farmworkers will be laid off as farmers abandon crops or turn to lower value, less labor intensive crops.
He told the House Subcommittee on Water and Power that Harris Farms, a major farming enterprise, has laid off a third of its full-time employees and anticipates laying off more workers this fall.
Lester Snow, state Department of Water resources director, said the state's major storage reservoirs are at low levels and state officials are preparing for another year of drought caused by a dry spring, court-ordered cutbacks, more demand for water and forecasts of another dry winter.
He said water that moves south from the delta has an economic impact of nearly $400 billion.
Not surprisingly, no immediate solutions to the water crisis were offered. There was considerable talk about a need for a new reservoir, an improved water delivery system and a need to take another look at what is really threatening wild fish in the delta.
About a dozen people on three panels testified as people packed the council chambers, including growers, irrigation district leaders and elected officials.
Some witnesses railed against how the Endangered Species Act is being enforced and what they see as a tendency of environmental activists and the courts to focus on pumps as the sole culprit in undermining fish populations.
Kole Upton, who farms in Madera and Merced counties, said "other possible causes of [declining fish populations] have been virtually ignored. Non-native species, predation, urban sewage discharges and illegal diversions have been ignored and judges are left with the one remedy of taking more and more water from current users without any accountability for success."
Demonstrators with a group called Families Protecting the Valley carried signs whose messages included "Save a fish, screw a farmer," "No agua, no trabajo" and "No water, no crops."
"It's a sad state of affairs when judges become river masters," said George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. He said he will meet with other Valley legislators with the intention of drawing up legislation that would seek a temporary emergency suspension of the Endangered Species Act due to the drought. He said similar legislation has been proposed by a delegation of Georgia legislators.
Both Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno, talked of the need for water storage as the state's population grows. "We have a system built for a population of 20 million people," Costa said. "Today, we have 38 million people. By 2030, it will be 50 million."
Nunes referred to promotion of "fairytale levels of water conservation." But questioning by subcommittee Chairwoman Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, showed a definite interest in learning whether farmers can do more to save water.
Stuart Woolf, who heads Woolf Farming Co. in Huron, said his company has invested a lot of money in drip irrigation and that his father jokes, "We work the water so hard it has blisters."
Birmingham said growers in Westlands have spent more than $500 million in the past 10 years to conserve water.
Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, said any water that "comes into our system stays in the system. It percolates back into the ground after we use it."
Napolitano said more must be done by federal agencies to respond quickly to the crisis and that it will mean state and federal partnerships. She was particularly outspoken about a need for the federal government to expedite disaster relief.
But she also said other efforts to come up with solutions to the delta crisis -- including the work of a Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force -- should "play out before we start deciding things."
Some who testified cited greater urgency.
"This is not the time for more fundraising and study," Woolf said.
Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson said it's "time to get off our butts and show some guts."
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