{"id":1111392,"date":"2021-12-12T11:43:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T16:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1111392"},"modified":"2021-12-12T11:43:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T16:43:40","slug":"merced-irrigation-district-sues-california-over-water-grab-for-fish-downstate-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/merced-irrigation-district-sues-california-over-water-grab-for-fish-downstate-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Merced Irrigation District Sues California over &#039;Water Grab&#039; for Fish, Downstate Users"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmerced-irrigation-district-sues-california-over-water-grab-for-fish-downstate-users%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1111392&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The Merced Irrigation District, a regional water authority in the San Joaquin Valley, is suing the State of California over a plan to divert water from the Merced River watershed to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for fish and downstate use.<\/p>\n<p>As Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2018\/11\/01\/republic-of-thirst-part-1-allocation-bay-delta-plan\/\">reported<\/a> in 2018, the state\u2019s Bay-Delta Plan aims to increase the amount of fresh water in the delta, also known simply as the \u201cCalifornia Delta,\u201d which has suffered from increasing salinity in recent years.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The Merced Irrigation District (MID) alleges that the plan is simply a \u201cwater grab\u201d that will take water from local users and send it to the delta, to satisfy environmental interest groups \u2014 many of which have no connection to the state \u2014 and Southern California users.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The MID has conducted its own scientific studies to suggest that declining salmon populations in other parts of the state are not due to water diversion, but rather to the arrival of alien predators and other development activities, such as mining. The MID has also negotiated with the state in the past to provide its own salmon habitat restoration \u2014 while keeping the water.<\/p>\n<p>But the state has decided to go ahead with its plan, though it has not yet said how much water it plans to divert from the Merced River, which is a tributary of the San Joaquin River that flows from the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite National Park, through the rich Central Valley farmland before joining the main watercourse northward to the Delta.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19100658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"33\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Yosemite-Flickr-e1639319288213.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19100658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Yosemite-Flickr-e1639319288213.jpg\" alt=\"Yosemite (Mark Gunn \/ Flickr \/ CC \/ Cropped)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Merced River, Yosemite (Mark Gunn \/ Flickr \/ CC \/ Cropped)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Merced Sun-Star<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercedsunstar.com\/news\/local\/environment\/article256494216.html\">reported<\/a> Saturday that local leaders are fuming \u2014 while out-of-state environmental groups are happy:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"23\">\n<p>MID officials have set up a \u201cSave Merced\u2019s Water\u201d website to gather signatures from residents to stop the diversions from moving forward.<br \/>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur perspective is we didn\u2019t create [California\u2019s] water quality problems,\u201d [MID spokesperson Mike] Jensen said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be our responsibility to bear the brunt of fixing them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Still, the state\u2019s plan does have its supporters. Some speakers at the Dec. 8 State Water Board meeting urged the board to move forward with it, saying existing protections for salmon don\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe current water quality control plan objectives aren\u2019t adequately protecting fish and wildlife beneficial uses,\u201d said Gary Bobker, program director at The Bay Institute, which is headquartered in New York City.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The fight over the Merced River\u2019s water comes as the state is suffering one of the most crippling droughts in its history. In the past, Merced-area officials have stressed that the water in the MID is not simply used for agriculture, but also supports local household use and is used by local school districts and communities of farm workers, which are predominantly Hispanic.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of <\/em>Breitbart News Sunday<em> on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neither-Free-nor-Fair-Presidential-ebook\/dp\/B08PNN54BB\">Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election<\/a>. His recent book, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerstreet.com\/titles\/joel-b-pollak\/red-november\/9781546099840\/\">RED NOVEMBER<\/a><em>, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at <a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelpollak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@joelpollak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Merced Irrigation District, a regional water authority in the San Joaquin Valley, is suing the State of California over a plan to divert water from the Merced River watershed &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}