By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
From Our Readers
Letters to Editor

Damaging The Delta

 

Dear Editor,

For decades we have taken so much water from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries (the Merced, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus) that now the delta ecosystems are crashing, the salmon populations are crashing, and in 2014 the San Joaquin was named America’s most endangered river.

Scientific studies show at least half the natural flow is needed to save the San Joaquin system from collapse. The State Water Board agrees. But the Merced and Modesto irrigation districts have invested in a propaganda/disinformation/scare tactic campaign, claiming that leaving enough water in the rivers would have “irreversible negative effects.”

In other words, they are willing to cause extinctions and crash the delta – things they can’t fix once they are broken – but if they have to turn to big-time water recycling, groundwater management and recharge, crop shifting, and tighter water efficiency, the effect could be “irreversible”?

Two questions: Do they know the meaning of the word “irreversible,” and what kind of Kool-Aid are these guys drinking?

The tragedy is that irrigators could brilliantly lead the way to sustainable water use in California if they would just stop chugging that Kool-Aid.

Melinda Wright