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A political misstep for Parra
In a big political misstep, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra touched off a furor among water agency officials and farmers in Kern County when she co-signed a letter late last month calling for a reduction in water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect fish.
The letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was written by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, chairwoman of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, and signed by Parra and other Democrats on the committee.
It cited surveys showing what the letter said was extinction “right around the corner” for the threatened Delta smelt. It blamed the problem largely on the State Water Project pumps, which can suck in and kill the little fish and otherwise disturb their habitat. It said “water exports should not continue at the increasing rates of the past several years.”
Those are fighting words to local agriculture and water people, who depend on the state project for nearly 25 percent of the water used in Kern County. They also contend that there are other major reasons for the decline of the fish and that the pumps are unfairly blamed.
The issue might have blown over, except that one week after the letter was written, the state was forced to shut the pumps down because the fish were hanging around the intakes and getting chewed up in large numbers. That threatened a real economic crisis in the Kern County farm industry, although the pumps have now been turned back on.
The Californian was pelted with e-mails, phone calls and verbal rumors about local water agency officials who were furious that one of their elected officials had signed that letter, although none of them would criticize Parra on the record.
But last week, Parra reacted to the pressure by issuing a letter of her own to Lester Snow, the head of the state Department of Water Resources. She wrote that she and water agencies in her district wanted the department to resume normal pumping operations.
She explained that she signed the Wolk letter partly “due to my belief the governor and members of his administration hold a better position to remedy this situation than to allow a further deterioration of the (fish) population that would most likely invite federal court intervention under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act.”
She also said the Wolk letter “did not specify what action the governor should initiate, and it certainly did not call for a shutdown” of the pumps.
Whether that's enough to mend some key political fences before her expected run for the state Senate in 2010 remains to be seen.
--Vic Pollard
5 comments from 4 users
1
posted by
RoyTullis
on Jun 20, 2007 at 07:47 PM
Bad political move for Parra....You would not expect it even from a representative of her sparse experience. Little fishes over water for farmers. In this valley that's ridiculous. Her peace making explanation just don't sound very bright. She should have read the letter before she signed it...
posted by
randomfactor
on Jun 21, 2007 at 07:22 AM
Gee, a backbone move for Parra. Whoda thunk it?
posted by
robbwillis
on Jun 21, 2007 at 08:21 AM
I see where the peripheral canal is back on the drawing board. Maybe that high-speed train boondoggle could be put off until its potential customers get a reliable water supply.
posted by
justincase
on Jul 13, 2007 at 01:43 PM
Water. Watch the movie "Chinatown". Fantastic flick. All about Lake Owens and LA. Lake Owens is dustbowl now and LA still a cesspool. When Delta Smelt takes precedence over the valley farmers -- no biggy. Just won't be able to make all those "obscene farm and ranch profits"......... But watch the dust up when the little smelts take precedence over the Smell A Cesspool and the denizens therein. Now thats some political power even the Dems won't wanna mess with!
posted by
justincase
on Jul 14, 2007 at 04:41 PM
BTW RF, one man's poison is another's Parra backbone move to you is shear political poison to others Thankfully your type don't run the country.......... yet.........
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