A House Republican is calling on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to resign over an unresolved water shortage in central California that some say favors the protection of fish over the livelihood of residents.
Rep. Devin Nunes, who represents Tulare, the second-largest agricultural county in the nation, said Friday that Schwarzennegger should step down after the governor delivered a speech on the water crisis in San Joaquin Valley that Nunes described as “little more than lip service and a rehash of what he has said on the subject for years.”
Hundreds of thousands of acres have been drying up because water pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta operated by both the federal government and the state of California have been slowed in order to protect the delta smelt, a two-inch minnow that environmentalists say would be sucked in and killed by the pumps if they were operating at full force.
Slowing the pumps to a trickle has devastated the area south of the delta, represented by Nunes, said his spokesman, leading to unemployment rates as high as 50 percent as farms and companies that supply them have gone out of business because of the lack of water.
Schwarzenneger’s speech Friday followed a march he took with affected agriculture workers and residents, who could be heard yelling “turn on the pumps” even as the governor chanted “We need water.”
The lackluster speech, “was kind of the last straw in Nunes’ view of how the governor has handled this crisis,” Andrew House, his spokesman, said.
Schwarzenegger’s office said the governor has been working for years to come up with a regional plan that will bring water to the area without hurting the fish.
“Governor Schwarzenegger has led the fight for reforming California’s broken water system by bringing all interested parties to the table and working with Senator Feinstein to craft a comprehensive water package,” Schwarzenegger spokesman Matt David said.
“Congressman Nunes’ attempt to grab headlines with finger pointing will not solve this problem and will only lead to the same gridlock that has paralyzed the water debate in this state for the last 50 years. We encourage Congressman Nunes to be part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem.”
Nunes made the resignation call without consulting with any other congressional lawmakers or his own leadership, said House.
“We see this as an urgent issue that needs to be resolved,” House said. “The pumps need to be turned on”
