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The San Joaquin River and its three main tributaries ranked second on a list of “endangered” streams released by a national group.

Water demand from farms and cities has sapped the San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers, says the annual report from American Rivers, based in Washington, D.C.

“Dams, levees and excessive water diversions have hurt river habitat and opportunities for recreation and community access,” says the report released Tuesday. “The river’s salmon and steelhead populations are on the brink of extinction.”

In 1952, the newly formed country of Israel faced a number of critical issues: The country had no money and was accepting new immigrants at a rate that was doubling its size.

The government — with main priorities of security, immigration and water — made the unlikely decision to spend what would end up being billions of dollars building a water system that would transport treated sewage to agriculture and other uses. The program took 30 years to complete.

Well over half of California voters dubbed an enduring lack of water a major problem, with 62 percent of Field Poll respondents calling the state of affairs “extremely serious.” But that still marked a sharp decline from October of 2015, when 76 percent of Californian voters called the drought extremely serious.

“Obviously the high point of public concern was back in October, prior to the current rainy season, because, hey, it hadn’t rained yet,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

Last year, signs pointed to a drought of historic severity.

In a multimillion-dollar deal, Southern California’s major water provider is acquiring five tracts of land in the heart of the Sacramento Delta, where the state is proposing to re-engineer water delivery systems. With the land purchase, the Metropolitan Water District is also raising suspicions among its new neighbors.

Zurich American, a subsidiary of a Swiss insurance company, is selling Metropolitan about 20,000 acres, including Bacon Island, Bouldin Island, Webb Tract, most of Holland Tract and a piece of Chipps Island.

 

It is now safe to say that El Niño will not solve California’s drought. Though this should have been obvious from the start, there is a silver lining – it has bought the state more time to put better policies in place to create a sustainable water supply for years to come for all Californians.

We are at a true “watershed moment.” If we take decisive and effective action, our state can thrive within the limits of its current and future water resources. But if we fail to act (or act as we have in the past), the challenges our growing state will face each year will grow.