What I learned swimming in the Delta

Well, I am back. As I said, once the primary was over I would start working on my other blog: Delta Levees. So, I did. The first real post is there today, and as I learned on my long swim, the San Joaquin River is more like a cesspool than a swimming pool.

I posted about a meeting of the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board that is comming up this month. Three years ago, they gave agricultural interests the right to ignore water quality standard for discharge into the San Joaquin. That exemption was for 3 years and it is up for renewal for 5 more years.

Some farming groups are working very hard to fix things in a voluntary way, as was supposed to be done under the previous exemption. However, most are not. One real question for this blog is whether or not Jerry should make this an issue for this race. You can be sure that Pombo will be for all of this voluntary stuff, that has not worked. (gee, he is for a lot of things that have not worked).

If Jerry wants strong environmental support to continue, maybe he wants to take some action here. If he wants some support from agricultrual interests, then maybe he wants to soft pedal it, of to make a connection with those agricultural coalition groups who are doing positive things (many are not).

Maybe the issue here is accountability: setting goals and measuring results. Clearly, what is going on here right now does not work, and it is all the more indicative of what Pombo will / will not do since he is Chairman of the Resources Commitee with oversight of our waterways and also on the Agriculture Committee.

Tags: CA-11, Jerry McNerney, Richard Pombo