Isn't that what a river does?

Thomas Wagoner, general manager of the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District in Southern California, penned an op-ed piece in the Riverside Press-Enterprise calling for a dynamic leader to lift up the banner in favor of a Peripheral Canal.

As part of his argument, Wagoner states:

"Meanwhile, as water agencies impose tiered-rate structures and residents cut back on their water use, state officials are allowing millions of acre-feet of drinking water to flow through the delta and out to the Pacific Ocean each year in efforts to protect the Delta smelt. That is more than enough water to satisfy all of Riverside County's residential water needs."

I've heard plenty of people bemoan the water that flows out of the Delta and into San Francisco Bay each year. Let's capture that water instead of wasting it, right?

But if millions of acre-feet of water no longer emptied from the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers into the Pacific Ocean, we'd have a desert, not a Delta.