The term ‘water conservation’ has changed its meaning over time. It used to mean we utilized every drop possible. Anything that reached the ocean was water wasted. Now, we are being educated on how to use less and about going “green”. Here in California, we are quite aware of water issues that seem to continually plague our state. Some years are better than others, but this year we are going to face some unique challenges. According to a recent article in the Mercury News, we are far below our averages and needs for the coming year, even with our recent storms. Farmers are selling their water to counties in need and crops might not receive the needed irrigation for the coming year.
Taking into consideration our dismal salmon returns the previous year, could it possibly be worse this year? The Bureau of Reclamation has recently stated we don’t have enough water in storage to supply the cold water flows necessary to keep salmon alive in the Sacramento River. “This is the kind of time everybody has been dreading for a long time”, said Peter Moyle, fisheries scientist at UC Davis. “This is when you really get conflicts where people have to make the hard choices — water for fish or water for other things.”
Is it going to be us or them, or are there other options? Maybe now is the time to examine how we are using water, how much we are using, and if there are things we can change. It shouldn’t have to be us or them, it just doesn’t sit right. Looking at how we have handled things in the past, things don’t look very optimistic for the fish. I really hope we don’t lose our salmon and steelhead runs because if we do, what’s next?
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