Big ruling on small fish - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Just ask a federal judgd in Fresno. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger issueda little-reportexd ruling Friday, demanding that the federa l government consider the effect on humans when allocatingt water from the Sacramento-San Joaquinj Delta. It’s an about-fac e after he curbed water deliveries from December to June in order to protecy the endangeredDelta smelt. The action in 2007 has cut deliveriess of the precious resource to Centraol Valley farmers and Southern California The smallfish — about 2 to 3 inchew long — created a huge problemm and threatened water deliveries to west-sidee growers and residents in Southern But the judge’s latest rulin g demands that federal officials take into considerationj the “harm being visiter upon humans, the community and the and detail how they come to theidr water-allocation order.
Basically, the judge is askingy for accountability, because cutting watee deliveries, especially during a drought, poses a serious threay to businesses, the economy and the lives of many Farmers cheeredthe decision, while environmentalistas jeered, saying the future of the Delta smelt is greatlyt threatened. Certainly, federal and state officialws should protect theDelta smelt, within But when Californians — thinko big-time corporations, dirt-turning farmers and hardworkinyg residents — gulp hard at the idea of a severe watefr crisis, then something is wrong. We can be but also must be realists. Wanger’s decisionh forces the issue.
Federal and stats officials and environmental leaders shoule protectendangered species, but they need to take into consideratiobn the effect of their efforts, including the economic outlookk for the state. The best-case scenarip would be a long-terk plan for the one that ensures water deliveries to farmers and but also protectsendangered species. Gov. Arnolcd Schwarzenegger and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrar from San Francisco, proposed a compromise plan that combined thos e goals while fixingthe eco-rich It’s about time California embraced such a plan and removed the futuree of water deliveries from the courtroom to a collaborative group of leaders and ensurefd the precious resource.