The State - News from Nov. 21, 1988

A $600,000-a-year public relations campaign to let farmers tell their side of increasingly heated water issues has been approved by the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Committee. Members of the committee who met at a conference of the Assn. of California Water Agencies at Stateline, Nev., said they want to counter what they consider misinformation spread by environmental groups and the media. There was criticism among the San Joaquin Valley group and other California farmers about a new report by the state Water Resources Control Board staff aimed at increasing protection of water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Specifically, San Joaquin Valley farmers indicated they would be hurt by a proposal for increases in the amount of water left in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from April through July to enhance fish breeding conditions and a proposed limitation of 5.5 million acre feet on the amount of water that could be diverted from the delta each year for state and federal water projects.