SOCECOL E8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Endangered Species Act Of 1973, Delta Smelt
26 May 2016
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Fresno, ca --here in the central valley there"s too little water and it"s drying up farms. It"s costing farmers . 5 billion dollars in lost income, and it"s costing the state 40,000 lost jobs. In just a glance, you know something is very wrong. And for the first time ever, farmers may be completely cut off from one of their sources of water. Farmers don"t have access to this water that runs right through the center of their farmland. It is being allocated to the delta smelt, a little fish, protected by the endangered species act. Conservationists said the smelt are dying in the irrigation pumps, so a judge ruled they must be shut off for much of the growing season. That hits almond farmers like shawn coburn particularly hard. 90 percent of the nation"s almonds come from this valley, and almond trees need a lot of water.
