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Water Crisis in Central Valley NOT Water Supply Related (CaliforniaProgressReport)

May.11, 2009 in Water Crisis, Water Industry

(May 11, 2009, The California Progress Report)

The San Joaquin Valley has been ground zero in the current economic recession. News outlets have run a number of stories about food banks running out of supplies and residents leaving their hometowns in search of work on the East Coast.

Water contractors have claimed that recent environmental regulations on water deliveries have caused a spike in agricultural unemployment, driving the Valley’s problems. However, new reports shed a different light on the nature of these tough times in the Valley.

Last week, the Sacramento Bee printed state agency data showing that farm employment has actually risen in California over the past three years of dry weather. All counties covering the west side of the San Joaquin Valley (except Merced County), with the highest foreclosure rate in the country, have recorded a rise in farm employment, as a drop in construction and service jobs are responsible for the countywide rise in unemployment. These data challenge the unemployment figures used by water contractors to promote the idea that relaxed environmental standards in the Delta to allow higher water deliveries will reverse the economic condition of the western portion of the Valley.

According to the California Employment Development Department (CEDD) information, even when Delta water deliveries to San Joaquin agriculture were above normal in 2000 and farm employment hit a nine-year peak, Mendota, whose residents are primarily employed by the local farming economy, experienced 32% unemployment. In fact, per-capita income was below $8,000 that year, the lowest level in the state and nearly 20% lower than Mexico.

The CEDD data are part of an economic analysis from the University of the Pacific’s Business Forecasting Center.

Michael Somebody of the Business Forecasting Center explains that “unemployment estimates represent how water has failed to bring prosperity to these communities in the past, not a problem that will disappear if we simply turn on the Delta water pumps.”

The impacts of a failing national economy have intensified an existing history of hardship for communities in the region. In order to ensure that life improves in these communities, relief must address the underlying causes of unemployment and provide lasting job opportunities.

Traci Sheehan is the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. It has testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills to strengthen California’s environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections.

(Original Article Here)