Those "little protected fish", the Delta Smelt, are like the canary in the coal mine. Ignore them at your own peril. These fish are very low on the food chain and the ripple effect from their extinction will flow through the food chain affecting nearly all the delta wildlife.
The politicians like Dianne Feinstein are financial benefactors to the contributions of big water companies and water consumers like the Westlands Water District and Paramount Farms/Louis Resnick. They are now beholden to the water companies and big company farmers to produce the water as part of the quid pro quo for their financial contributions/bribes.
Listen here from 31:50 through about 41:30 for further discussion about CA Delta water export politics.
Don't be fooled by their claimed need to provide for the small farmer when it's the small delta farmer who is getting his fresh water sent south to the big farm companies like ADM. Our local farmers are being told that the salinity dams will be installed as soon as next month and their water supplies in Sutter and Steamboat Sloughs will become brackish and unsuitable for farming.
The big company farms have for years, even before the drought, been leaving strips of land go fallow along Interstate 5 to give the false impression of a lack of water. Flying over the area, it's blatantly obvious as you can plainly see the green fields of crops just a few hundred yards away from the interstate and in the middle of the thousand acre farms lie these huge 5000+ sq ft mansions with gated circular driveways, tennis courts and luxury pools and gardens.
Their annual water allocations far exceed their needs and they then resell the water during high water years at a huge profit. Their true 100% need lies at about 60% of their annual allocation. So they get 40% more water than they need during a 100% allocation year to resell and line their pockets. So when you drive down I-5 and see their many signs complaining that they are only getting 60-75% of their allocation, know that they are still meeting their needs and even making a profit on that water that they don't need.
Farmers throughout the central valley who are dependent on the delta water have been told for decades that they are
not to plant enduring crops (not the right term) like trees/vines producing walnuts, grapes, pecans, almonds due to the unreliability of the water source. The plan was for them to plant annually based upon projected water supplies. They have ignored that recommendation and now plead for pity that their investment in fruit trees and vines are going to be lost. They are victims of their own greed and ignorance.