Screw California Agriculture! Save The Delta Smelt!!

See that fish?  That fish, the Delta Smelt,  is the center of a huge fight right now – between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and people with Actual Brains.

The USFWS, through a 2008 Endangered Species Act decision, is restricting water to Central Valley – a region with a ton of farm crops.  This water restriction isn’t just cutting off supply to farmers, but to municipalities as well, and job losses are occurring as a result.  

Where is the water going?  To the delta smelt.  Because they’re on some endangered species list.  But the problem with that is that no one is even sure if giving more water to the fish (and cutting off supplies of water to people in the process) will even help these teeny tiny fishies.  

People with Actual Brains have been protesting these water restrictions, because it’s destroying farms and putting people out of work.  And what’s more, because it’s unconstitutional.  The delta smelt apparently only live in California, and they serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever except to exist.  Therefore, they don’t have any commercial value, and so they can’t really be used by the USFWS as a basis to restrict water from, you know, PEOPLE and stuff.  

So, a lawsuit was filed by people with Actual Brains with the assistance of Pacific Legal Foundation.  And, happily, Judge Oliver Wanger granted an injunction against USFWS, and agreed with people with Actual Brains that the reduction of water exporting to agricultural operations is not right.  He said, “Plaintiffs have shown that irreparable harm will likely occur in the absence of injunctive relief, including loss of water supplies, damage to permanent crops, including orchards and vineyards, crop loss or reduction in crop productivity, job losses, reductions in public school enrollment, limitations on public services, impaired ability to reduce the toxic effects of salt and other minerals in the soil, groundwater overdraft, increased energy consumption, and land fallowing that causes air quality problems.” 

Yeah.  All because the USFWS is worried about a useless little fish.  This is just one more example of environmentalists gone haywire.  It’s environmentalists putting plants and fish and other wildlife above humans, no matter what the cost. 

And don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE wildlife.  Especially the cute and furry kind.  I want to hug them and love them and squeeze them all.  And I totally get wanting to protect endangered species.  But not at the cost of people’s physical or economic needs.  According to this, some stupid maggot delayed the construction of a freaking HOSPITAL for over a year in California.  Protecting some brand of  beetle ultimately caused a levee break, and now the delta smelt is preventing much needed water from reaching croplands which employ and ultimately feed many many people.