“Dead dogs and toxic fish: Welcome to Stockton, a city choking on California water policy” – The Los Angeles Times, 11/12/19
The #LATimes Editorial Board knocks it out of the park with an editorial that gets at what the Trump water plan and Newsom Voluntary agreements mean for the Delta’s largest city, Stockton, and the Delta’s environmental justice communities. To read the editorial in full, click here.
“…it’s not only the fish, fishing industry, the orcas and the ecosystem that are in jeopardy.
“It is also the people of Stockton and those other communities up and down the river that live or die on the flow of water through their cities. It is the heart of California, sacrificed for more politically connected areas. It is multi-generational delta farming families, losing their water to newer, larger farms to the south. The contest is not farms versus fish. It is money versus people, political clout versus the powerless, the haves versus the have-nots….”
“Some of the water that the Trump administration has ordered to be diverted from the rivers would flow to Southern California faucets as well as Central Valley nut orchards. But surely Los Angeles did not sign up for this — for policies that drain rivers, degrade the natural environment and leave cities in other parts of the state to choke on toxic algae and intruding saltwater. Our survival does not require snuffing out salmon, Stocktonians or our neighbors in other parts of the state.”