MODESTO, Calif. — Farmers are speaking out about the Bay-Delta water quality control plan that was just approved by the California State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday night.
The approved plan is meant to increase the river flows into the Delta to revive the salmon population. In turn, this would mean delivering less water to farmers and cities who rely on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced Rivers.
"It's aggravating, it's not heartbreaking, it's aggravating," Jake Wenger, a fourth-generation farmer in Modesto said.
Wenger's family has been growing a number of different crops out of Modesto for more than 100 years and in that time, he says, this issue takes the cake.
"The river flow proposal is the most important issue facing our community that we've seen in the last 100 years," he said.
Jake was one of hundreds ABC10 followed up to the Capitol back in August, as he demanded the water board to "stop the water grab" but today, he says those efforts have fallen on deaf ears.
"This isn't just an assault on farmers, this is an assault on farm workers and farm workers families and their communities, I don't know how anybody can see the state doing this and find it acceptable," he said.
Farmers say without enough water, thousands of acres of farmland across this area are at risk of becoming fallowed.
"Without water, we're going to have tumbleweeds," Paul Wenger, Jake's father said.
"If you have less ground to farm, that means layoffs, that means less jobs," Jake said.
In the state water board meeting on Wednesday night, about 55 people spoke out on this plan. Still, at the end of the day in the final hour, four out of five board members decided to move forward.
A decision, Jake's dad believes will hurt the future of California's farming industry.
"There should be a wall of shame established so that 20 to 30 years down the road, people wonder why we got to where we got, there should be four names on that wall of shame," Paul said.
As it stands now, this decision will eventually boost the water flows from the Tuolomne, Stanislaus and Merced Rivers into the Delta to revive the salmon population, meaning, it will deliver less water to farmers like the Wengers.
"We presented them with a workable voluntary agreement that the fish and wildlife agencies agreed to and the state water board said no, we're still going to take your water," Jake said. "At this point, nobody can argue the fact that this is a water grab."
Farmers believe this could be tied up in litigation before we see an immediate impact.
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