In California, the preservation of our state ecology is pitted against our water needs | Opinion
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has emerged as the heart of our state’s vast water system, providing fresh water to two-thirds of the state’s population and six million acres of farmland. In January of 2023, Downtown Sacramento received 7.54 inches of rainfall, nearly doubling its 30-year average (3.86 inches). The record precipitation induced disastrous flooding, accelerating runoff to the Pacific Ocean.
Despite having a comprehensive system of natural reserves and human ingenuity, conservationists estimated that nearly 95% of the received rainfall in California was diverted to the Pacific Ocean.
The wanton runoff ignited bipartisan outrage, driving nearly a dozen legislators hailing from the drought-stricken Central Valley to call for an increase in the amount of water captured in the State Water Project’s aqueducts. Although the runoff can be interpreted as an egregious failure of bureaucracy, water pumping restrictions are informed by environmental regulations that preserve the Delta’s ecological integrity.
The natural disasters following January’s downpour ignited an already contentious struggle: one that balances the restoration of a degenerating ecosystem and the maintenance of its role as a freshwater provider.
The Delta is a delicate ecosystem with a bevy of endangered species, many already waning from warming waters, increasing salinity and erratic water flow fluctuations. The Delta Smelt, a translucent, slender-bodied fish reaching up to four inches in length, is especially impacted. The Delta Smelt is considered the Delta’s “canary in the coalmine,” as its presence (or lack thereof) represents the overall health of the estuary ecosystem.
In effect, the Delta Smelt’s ecological significance impedes the amount of water that can be pulled from the Delta for millions of Californians as well as for the state’s agricultural complex. And herein lies the crux of California’s water conservation: the increasing gap between a substantiating ecological collapse and booming economic infrastructure. As such, our growing state must confront an ugly crossroads that pits the forecast of unprecedented ecological disaster against the survival of millions.
The “smeltdown” of the Delta suggests that other native Delta fish, such as salmon and sturgeon, inch closer to extinction. As California ratifies legislation to bolster water diversion and storage, the preservation and natural order of biodiversity will be remodeled through capitalism’s ideological and economic parameters. The Delta’s ecological collapse would pose unprecedented consequences for a state whose salmon-based ecosystem is already in free fall.
As orcas and plankton in the Pacific feed on salmon endemic to the Delta, entire ecosystems — and economic infrastructures — such as the Chinook Salmon hatcheries, face complete systemic decimation.
As the Delta Smelt is essentially extinct in the wild, restoration efforts of the Delta must be guided through an ecosystems-based perspective. Conservationists have noted that the steep decline in the Delta Smelt can be attributed to reductions in outflow inherent within dam constructions. The state must rapidly expand its capacity for deep percolation, maximize stormwater capture and modernize its water conveyance infrastructure.
As of January 13, 2023, Sacramento County issued its first five-year temporary groundwater storage permit, diverting 10,000 acre-feet of underground storage for irrigation. In addition, the state is expanding its underground water storage capacity by 2.77-million-acre feet.
The prospect of ecological disaster invokes existential dread. However, we must not falter before the herculean task of conservation. We must not shirk our responsibilities, as the advancement of social justice begins on the battlefields of lobbying and legislative advocacy.