The Toronto Globe and Mail came out with a well-written and detailed story about an ongoing clash between farmers in the San Joaquin Valley whose irrigation water supply has been cut to negligible amounts due to environmental agitation to save the delta smelt. Delta smelt are steel-blue, six-inch long fish who serve primarily as food for invasive larger species of fish such as the striped bass and largemouth bass. They cannot survive encounters with the large pumps used to send water from the delta south to the San Joaquin Valley for irrigation. Their numbers dropped in recent years to the point where they became listed as an Endangered Species and hence entitled to federal protection. The reduction in the water supplies for the San Joaquin Valley, following on two years of drought, have forced farmers first to watch crops wither in the field, and then to let their fields lie fallow.
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