Congressman questions role of ex-Interior staffers in water deals

[LeighAnn]

Source: AP via the Fresno Bee

The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee said Thursday he was concerned about the role two former Bush administration officials may have played in negotiating deals for the Central Valley water district where they now work.

Jason Peltier left his job as a top water policy adviser at the Interior Department on Friday to take a management post at the Westlands Water District, a coalition of giant agribusinesses that is the department's biggest water customer.

Westlands is currently discussing a settlement with the government that would give farmers a stake in a massive reservoir, millions of dollars in pumps and pipes and permanent water rights in exchange for cleaning up cropland tainted by toxic runoff in a botched federal project.

The department must ensure that those negotiations and other water discussions with the Westlands district aren't affected by Peltier switching sides, Committee Chairman Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/247614.html

[aquart]

1. And when are we getting revolving door legislation?

[Fawkes]

2. Westlands

Please call your representative to raise this issue.  If  you
don't know about Westlands Water District, it is extremely
powerful in California and uses its power to get water that
would be better used for endangered fish and wildlife. 
Furthermore, it uses enormous amounts of water to grow cotton
in a desert, which is much better grown in areas with natural
precipitation.

This is a huge issue in California and for environmentalists.

[XemaSab]

3. Westlands is Big Water in California...

they are the cabal that keeps farmers exempt from environmental laws. Their raison d'etre is to suck more and more water from other users in the state in order to farm cotton in the arid lands in the western San Joaquin Valley.

They're evil and should be put out of business.

[Fawkes]

4. More

Just to make it clear, we're not talking about small family
farmers.  Westlands represents huge corporate farms that have
nearly dried up the San Joaquin River, formerly the second
largest river in California, and through sheer political power
have taken huge amounts of water from the Trinity River,
causing great harm to endangered salmon.  The Trinity River is
hundreds of miles north and on the other side of the Trinity
Alps from Westlands.  Westlands fought for years to drain the
Trinity dry, but lost in court a few years ago and had to
return some water to the river.  However, the years without
sufficient flows damaged the habitat for fish, so now large
amounts of money are going into restoring the Trinity to try
to restore the fish populations.

I echo xemosab. Westlands is evil.  Unfortunately, most people
in California have never heard of them and have no idea of the
power they have.