Yes, it would be nice to see the Colorado River Delta restored to a thriving wetland. Farmers, in general, are nice people, but each individual
farmer will always take as much irrigation water as he / she can get. The cumulative effect of all of these individuals is that sometimes ALL of the
water in the rivers is diverted to grow crops.
Thus, when you look at a satellite map of the Imperial / Mexicali Valley you see a luxuriant pattern of green squares where alfalfa, lettuce cotton,
etc. is grown, and a brown bare desert that once was the delta of the Colorado River. The same is true for the San Joaquin River, once home to
salmon, steamboats, and vast wetlands, now a tiny trickle below the Friant Dam that eventually peters out into a dry nothingness.
And yet, if any suggestion if made to perhaps return just a tiny fraction of the water that once flowed to these wetlands people act like it is
something criminal that will take away all the food and waste the water by letting it "run to the sea". Well, that is called a "River". Rivers are
nice, for animals and fish and birds and humans. |
