Feinstein: Environmentalists “No Help” With Drought

Exasperated senator says green activists are keeping state dry.

The green crew is keeping California brown.

Environmentalists have been "no help" in crafting solutions to solve California's ongoing dry spell, according to an exasperated Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein is trying to push "farm-friendly" legislation in Washington that would allow water-starved farmers in Kern County and elsewhere to access vital water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

That water could flow if restrictions put in place to protect salmon and other wildlife are eased -- and that's where environmentalists refuse to budge.

Feinstein's lost patience with that stance. "You can't have a water infrastructure for 16 million people and say, 'Oh, it's fine for 38 million people,' when we're losing the Sierra Nevada snowpack," the senator told the newspaper.

Feinstein and fellow senator Barbara Boxer have co-sponsored a bill that would make it easier for cities and farms to access water currently reserved for fish.

But some Bay Area Democrats are siding with the fish folk, and say that Feinstein has already succeeded in making state water agencies pump water to the "limits of the law," the newspaper reported.

The state's drought is continuing apace, with conditions expected to worsen this summer.

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