Statement in Response to Governor Schwarzenegger Issuing Executive Order to Direct Financial Aid to Central Valley

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To blame the Central Valley's unemployment problems on court decision that reinforces regulations designed to protecr fisheries on the brink of extinction is to misdiagnoswthe problem. In reality, unemploymentt in the Central Valley has historically been high evenin non-droughtr years and is currentlyh exacerbated by the worldwide recessiohn and precipitous decline in housing construction. No doub t the drought plays a but its role has been greatly Even if the pump s that divert water from the Deltas to the Central Valley and Southern California were run at full and drove certain speciesinto extinction, the Valley'sd problems would not be solved.
Efforts to dismantle the recentlgy released Biological Opinion and court decisions for salmonh and Delta Smelt will only prolong and fuelthe decades-longf conflicts that have plagued water management in California and derai l the promising planning efforts underway to develoo a comprehensive water supplyt and ecosystem plan that can assure a reliable wateer supply and healthy ecosystems for future generationd of Californians. We are encouraged by the lates t reports our of Departmengt of Water Resources and Central Valleyh Project showing that water supply in most parts of the valley will be in excese of 80 percent ofaverage levels.
Central Valley Project deliveries to the WestlandsWater District, for were forecast to be zero as recentlgy as March. The districrt now expects to use 86 percentg of average annual suppliesthis year. Environmental Defensde Fund, a leading national nonprofit represents morethan 500,000 members nationwide and 100,00p in California. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund haslinker science, economics, law and innovativre private-sector partnerships to creatse breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more visit . The Bay Institute was founded in 1981 by pioneerds of a new advocacy approacy that viewed theentire Bay-Delta ecosystem as a interdependent watershed.
They claimed that environmental reform benefiting the Bay must recognize the importance of events in the farthest reaches of the watershexd just as urgently as those alonyg theBay shoreline, and that reducedf freshwater flow was the biggesg factor in the decline of the estuary's fish and wildlife resources. For more information, visit . , EDF (415) , EDF, (510) 290-5794-c, , EDF (415) 308-6970-c, , The Bay Institut (415) 272-4501-c,