FRESNO, Calif. — Top Obama administration officials took California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to task Thursday for blaming the state’s water crisis on federal environmental restrictions.
The governor sent a letter to Washington on Wednesday demanding a response to “catastrophic impacts” he said were caused by federal environmental rules that have slashed water deliveries.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke countered that a three-year drought is responsible for most of the state’s water shortages, not agency scientists.
A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor’s office was reviewing the secretaries’ written response.
Tight water supplies have caused cities throughout the state to ration supplies and farmers to abandon a quarter- million acres of cropland.
The state’s failure to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the freshwater estuary that forms the heart of the state’s outdated water-delivery system, has only compounded the problem, the secretaries said.
