Facts are Stubborn Things

“Facts are stubborn things” said founding father John Adams more than 200 years ago.  What he meant is that some, in their zeal to advance their political agenda, often fail to acknowledge facts that don’t support their case.  Not surprisingly, some folks are particularly careful to ignore facts that undermine their point.  He could have been talking about California water.

A lot of hard truths are likely to be overlooked in the busy coming week of events addressing California water issues.  At several of these events, we’ll see signs of an ambitious political, legal and media campaign by powerful Central Valley agricultural interests to weaken protections for the Bay-Delta ecosystem, salmon and other species.  So pay attention to news stories and statements to see who’s addressing (and who’s ignoring) the following stubborn facts:

• According to state and federal agencies, fully three quarters of the water supply reductions in 2009 were the result of a third consecutive dry year.  (The Pacific Legal Foundation virtually ignores the dry weather and refers to this as a “government drought” on a video on Delta water issues.)  
• The science supports the new Bay-Delta protections.  Before the salmon and smelt biological opinions were finalized, five peer reviews were completed, to ensure that they were based on the best science available.   By contrast, the previous biological opinions rejected by the court were found – in official federal reviews – to have been produced using poor science and political manipulation.
• Prior to the new protections, the state and federal projects set all-time records for water diversions in the Delta.  After decades of steadily increasing Delta pumping, we were simply taking too much from this ecosystem.  The new Delta protections will return us to approximately the level of diversions seen in the 1990’s. 
• The entire Bay-Delta ecosystem -- the largest estuary on the west coast of the continent -- is in trouble, including spring-run Chinook salmon, winter-run Chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and delta smelt.  In the last two years the fall-run Chinook salmon -- the backbone of salmon fishing in California – joined the list of collapsing Bay-Delta species.  
• California’s salmon fishery has been closed for two years – the first such closure in state history -- as a direct result of the collapse of Bay-Delta salmon runs, costing the state economy thousands of jobs and more than half a billion dollars.  This decline closely followed record Delta diversions.   (Some have gone to remarkable lengths to avoid mentioning salmon.  The Pacific Legal Foundation video on the Delta refers to the salmon biological opinion as protecting “another fish species”.) 
• In addition to environmentalists and fishermen, Delta farmers oppose efforts in Congress to block protections for the Bay-Delta, because excessive pumping draws salty Bay water into the Delta threatening the quality of the water these farmers use to irrigate Delta islands.  The state administration and the Metropolitan Water District also don’t support efforts to block these protections. 
• The package of policy legislation passed by the state legislature in November requires the state’s plan for the Delta to restore the heath of the ecosystem and the Delta’s fisheries – and establishes a state policy of reducing reliance on the Delta.   These requirements are in direct conflict with efforts to block federal protections. 

These stubborn facts about California water issues aren’t going to go away.  And our success in designing workable solutions – as opposed to dramatic press releases – will largely be shaped by our willingness to confront these facts, rather than running away from them.