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It’s highly unlikely but somewhere in America there may yet be a more heart-wrenching example of human misery caused by Big Green environmental extremism than the dust bowl that California’s Central Valley is becoming. Regardless, the House of Representatives has an opportunity today to put an end to the needless devastation wreaked upon America’s most fertile farmlands in order to protect the delta smelt, a three-inch fish found almost exclusively in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley estuary. Big Green extremists claim the Endangered Species Act requires the delta smelt to be protected, even if that means putting thousands of people from hundreds of productive family farms in the unemployment lines. House members can stop this insanity today by passing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act.

The bill is needed because, beginning in 2009, 300 billion gallons of water — enough to cover an area the size of Rhode Island — that used to go annually to irrigate the nation’s most productive farm lands have instead been diverted to maintain the level of salinity in the estuary required by the delta smelt to spawn. Rather than irrigating crops, the diverted water flows out into the Pacific Ocean. The result is double-digit joblessness, loss of farms owned by families for generations, and the wasting away of thousands of acres of lands capable of growing as much as half of all the vegetables, fruits and nuts consumed in America. The Big Green extremists and their San Francisco Democrat allies look the other way when confronted with the horrendous consequences of their ESA worship.

Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican who represents a Central Valley district, introduced the bill, which is co-sponsored by two other California GOPers, Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Jeff Denham. Besides requiring restoration of adequate water supplies to the valley, the bill would generate an estimated 30,000 new jobs and $300 million in new revenue for the federal government, according to the House Natural Resources Committee chaired by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. The Hastings panel describes the bill as a “comprehensive solution that would restore water deliveries that have been cut-off due to federal regulations and environmental lawsuits, ensure a reliable water supply for people and fish, secure water rights and save taxpayer money by ending unnecessary and dubious government projects.”

Something else the bill would do is uphold the sanctity of contracts. Every gallon of water diverted by the federal government for the delta smelt is taken from the farms — both those that are family owned and the commercial operations. As Nunes recently told NetRightDaily, that raises the issue of illegal seizure of private property by federal bureaucrats: “Today, contracted water that is desperately needed in an economically depressed region, and which has already been paid for, is being taken by the government and dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Congress has a 14th Amendment duty to right this wrong.” Failure will deprive thousands of Americans in California’s Central Valley of the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Constitution. At last check, the Constitution still supercedes the ESA.

From the Washington Examiner Editorial Page (click here).