Water Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink

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Bay Wash As much as 60 percent of the freshwater inflow into San Francisco Bay is now diverted upstream, turning a once biologically rich estuary into a polluted arm of the sea and allowing saltwater intrusion into the delta. The state’s immense fishing industry has been destroyed, and salmon are nearing extinction. Water Welfare In 1988, a government economist calculated that taxpayers had invested $6.8 billion in the federally run Central Valley Project in the 50 years since its inception in 1937. Grapes of Wrath Redux Despite the current move to exclude illegal immigrants from California, agribusiness is now more dependent on them than ever. Ninety-two percent of agricultural laborers are foreign-born, and more are constantly needed, as poor working conditions and low pay dissuade their children from working in the fields.	The Great Central Valley California’s Central Valley is a 500-mile-long basin enclosed by the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east and the Coast Ranges to the west. For convenience, its northern third is known as the Sacramento Valley and the southern two-thirds as the San Joaquin Valley. South of the San Joaquin River lies a region of internal drainage known as the Tulare Basin. The two rivers — the Sacramento and the San Joaquin — converge in a fertile, 1,000-square-mile delta between Sacramento and Stockton before flowing into San Francisco Bay, and from there out to the Pacific. In 1993, Ralph E. Grossi, president of the American Farmland Trust, called the Central Valley “without a doubt the most threatened agricultural region in the country.” A 1995 study released by the trust predicted that 1 million further acres of farmland will be urbanized by 2040.
	The Salt Loop The numbers and arrows on the map indicate a gigantic loop of water laced with salt — as well as boron, selenium, and agricultural chemicals — accumulated in the runoff from the valley farms’ desert soil. State and federal pumps near Tracy (1) suck freshwater from the delta. The state-built California Aqueduct (2) sends the water south, irrigating the farms on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. From there, the contaminated wastewater drains into the marshes and lowlands east of the aqueduct (3) and then into the San Joaquin River (4), which carries it back to the delta (5). The wastewater — and salt water pulled inland from San Francisco Bay — is picked up by pumps (1) to begin the salt loop again. The aqueduct also carries the contaminated water south of the San Joaquin Valley to the Tulare Basin (6), and then on to Southern California cities (7) for drinking and other uses.
	Mud Cow Disease Wastewater selenium, absorbed by grasses, causes disease and death in cows. The mineral also can pass to humans through grains and vegetables. Birds that nest in trees planted to absorb the waste have a very high mortality rate.
	Out of Breath As smog in the Central Valley worsens, pollution kills the forests of the Sierra Nevada that are necessary for watershed protection. Meanwhile, pollution, dust, chemicals, and pollen have made Fresno the asthma capital of California.