Over at KQED’s California, they have an interview with the AP’s Garance Burke about water policy in the state. It’s worth a listen.
As you may remember, the Democrats released a water plan last week and are focusing on the issue. However, as the comments point out, there is a substantial risk here. Namely, the spectre of a peripheral canal. The commission that would review the Delta issues would gain vast powers, powers that could even extend to the construction of a canal or an underground piping system to take water north to south around the Delta.
Salt water won’t kill the smelt, but pumping does and will. Building the peripheral canal can and will be built to provide environmental benefits to the ecology of the delta.
Environmentalists have been led astray and hijacked by intra-state rivalry groups and delta farmers (who cause far more ecological damage to the delta than even the worst canal proposition would) for far too long – it’s time environmentalists realize that this project will protect both the delta’s ecology and the state’s economy.