Central California sucks

I hate the drive to Southern California. It really is a god-awful eight or so hours. I had the displeasure of making the journey over the weekend, traveling, for the most part, down Interstate 5.

The trip seemed to be going well between Chico and Sacramento, but beyond that point things started to get ugly. We got caught up in a caravan driving bumper to bumper at about 80-plus mph. There were some intense stretches of asphalt. It was frustrating and dangerous. And then we entered no man’s land, where things got really annoying.

Somewhere in the armpit of California, south of Stockton and north of Coalinga, I started seeing signs like “No water = higher food costs” and “Water = jobs!” and my personal favorite: “Stop the Congress-created Dust Bowl.” This all relates to the restrictions on pumping water to this arid part of the state. A few months ago, the State Water Resources Control Board imposed restrictions on junior water rights holders. Those users have largely ignored the no-pumping notices, so the board this week is attempting to put some teeth behind their orders. A few options include fines of $500 per day and requiring that users acknowledge, under penalty of perjury, that they have stopped pumping.

The signs weren’t in direct response to the state water board’s recent efforts to put penalties into place. Some have been there for years, put there during previous years when water was scarce. Yet all around them for miles and miles are orchards, many of them newly planted. That means farmers in this parched region, despite the inherent risk of planting trees—rather than row crops in fields that can be fallowed in dry years—have only themselves, and perhaps Mother Nature, to blame for their bad fortune. I can’t muster sympathy for them, although I do feel badly for the farm workers they employ—people who had no part in choosing the crop.

Recently, a reader emailed me lamenting the federal protections for the endangered Delta smelt, another reason the pumping has been curtailed. What he didn’t understand is that the smelt is an indicator of the estuary’s health. The tiny fish has been used as a political pawn by Central Valley politicians on up to Weeper of the House John Boehner, but we’re talking about a canary in a coal mine. That species is important. But let’s talk about chinook instead, because people actually care about salmon. That species is in such decline due to pumping that the fishery is threatened. If it goes, so too go thousands of jobs. The point here is that the entire Delta ecosystem is imperiled, and without it, we can say goodbye to our agricultural industry. The watershed is the lifeline to the state’s economic vitality, and we must preserve it. But few communities are doing that.

The city of Stockton, a junior rights holder, successfully appealed a curtailment order this week. That means the city will continue to siphon water from the Delta and won’t implement strict water-conservation rules. In other words, Stockton sucks. Literally and figuratively.