California's water worries increase
By Dairy Herd news source
| Friday, June 12, 2009
A biological opinion released last week by the National Marine Fisheries Service has added to water worries of farmers in California. Federal biologists and hydrologists have concluded that current water pumping operations should be altered to ensure survival of winter and spring-run Chinook salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and killer whales – that rely on salmon for food.
"This federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth largest economy," says California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
According to an article in Ag Alert, the opinion calls for several actions, such as increasing water storage, regulating river flow rates and slowing water-transferring pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to a greater degree.
Should the directives be put in place, water available to cities and farms south of the delta would be reduced by 300,000 to 500,000 acre-feet. This is a drop of 5 percent to 7 percent from water deliveries that are already low due to a court ruling to protect delta smelt. Hundreds of thousands of acres have already been left fallow in California due to the lack of water caused by this court order.
To read the entire article, click here.
Source: Ag Alert
