Solomon Moore, The New York Times 20 Jun 09;
LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unusual request Friday, asking President Obama to declare Fresno County a federal disaster area because of a three-year drought that is straining California’s agricultural industry and worsening unemployment in the hard-hit Central Valley.
Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced his request on a visit to the county, the state’s breadbasket, where unemployment is near 17 percent.
Tough new environmental regulations to protect endangered freshwater fish are also hindering California’s huge agricultural industry, which provides about half of the nation’s fresh produce.
Government statistics released Friday showed California’s unemployment rate at 11.5 percent in May, the highest since World War II, compared with 11.1 percent in April, representing a loss of 68,900 nonfarm jobs.
Requests for a presidential disaster declaration are rarer for droughts than for other natural disasters. In 2007, the governor of Georgia requested a declaration because of a prolonged drought, but President George W. Bush declined to make one.
The White House did not respond immediately to Mr. Schwarzenegger’s request.
Should Mr. Obama grant the request, California would qualify for direct aid, low-interest loans and other resources offered by the federal government.
Without the declaration, drought relief is usually handled through the Department of Agriculture’s crop insurance program, which subsidizes underwriters of agricultural concerns and provides direct payments to farmers and ranchers.
The governor also signed an executive order to provide about $3 million a month in food assistance and unemployment insurance in the Fresno area.
“These are dire circumstances,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said at a stop in Mendota. “Here in the Central Valley, no water means no work. And no work means people cannot feed their families.”
About 450,000 acres across California are fallow this year because of water shortages, state officials say. Fewer planted acres means fewer jobs in agriculture and higher prices at supermarkets across the country, said Victoria Bradshaw, the governor’s deputy chief of staff.
“Last month, agriculture lost 29,000 jobs” in the state, Ms. Bradshaw said.
“That has huge impact not only on California’s economy but on the nation’s food supply,” she said. “If we can’t keep our agricultural communities together, then we’re going to be more dependent on foreign food supplies.”
California had only 53 percent of its normal rainfall in 2007, and 58 percent in 2008, and has had only 77 percent this year, said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources. Federal and state reservoirs that collect rainwater and melting mountain snowpacks in Northern California remain critically low, Mr. Snow said.
Also, a recent federal court ruling on the Endangered Species Act requires the water authorities to restrict severely the operation of pumping stations in the San Joaquin River Delta because they were destroying endangered smelt populations.
Mr. Schwarzenegger’s visit to the Central Valley came at the suggestion of Mayor Robert Silva of Mendota, a hard-hit rural town of cantaloupe farms and 10,700 people where unemployment is about 41 percent.
“We’ve been having food giveaways every two weeks,” Mr. Silva said. “We had another one yesterday where we gave away 1,200 boxes of produce. The crime rate has gone up because a lot of people around here are desperate, and a lot of people are traveling to other places for work.”
Todd Allen, 46, a wheat and cotton farmer from the Fresno County community of Firebaugh, said he was angry that the government seemed to be more concerned about “bait fish” than about his livelihood.
“I’ll be damned if I’ll let a little fish take all my water away,” Mr. Allen said. “I will sue for everything and make sure that I get a bunch of farmers together and people who have lost jobs to fight the government to the end.”
Most of Mr. Allen’s 600 acres are a tangle of dead wheat stalks and weeds because he lacked enough water to irrigate his crops. And his finances are a jumble of bank debts, he said, adding that he had begun taking pills for high blood pressure.
“I’ve been out there weeding it myself because I can’t afford any employees,” Mr. Allen said. “It’s going to be a disaster in the supermarkets when people have to pay $4 for a cantaloupe. You got people sleeping in cars out here. I’ve seen people getting turned away from food lines.”
