Northern California has been experiencing the wettest storm it has seen in years, this has allowed billions of gallons of water pouring across the state after three years of a severe drought.
According to Mercury News, ”[About] 94% of the water that has flowed since New Year’s Eve through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a linchpin of California’s water system, has continued straight to the Pacific Ocean instead of being captured and stored in the state’s reservoirs.”
Environmental regulations have been able to continue to protect the two-inch-long fish, the endangered Delta smelt, which has caused the state and federal pumps near Tracy to reduce the pumping by nearly half of their full water-limit.
The quantity of the water that could be collected due to the heavy rainfall could help tons of people and their surrounding towns.
The movement has caused tension with many Central Valley politicians of both parties along with agricultural leaders, who have been arguing for many months that someone needs to focus on assisting farmers dealing with the wrath of the drought.
In 1973, Richard Nixon, signed the federal Endangered Species Act and with Gov. Ronald Reagan signing the 1970’s state Endangered Species Act, makes it illegal to kill fish or wildlife who are risk of extinction.