It was brought to my attention a week ago that while a massive budget deficit is rightly the state’s issue du jour, water is still the biggest concern for many in California.

The reminder was hard to miss — dozens of neon-yellow signs next to dusty fields and felled orchards proclaiming a “Congress created dust bowl” from Patterson to Bakersfield on Interstate 5.

A veteran of the Tracy-to-Los Angeles journey, I’d long been accustomed to roadside signs reminding motorists that “Food grows where water flows.”

The new protests are different. These lay the blame for drought and parched farms at the feet of — or, actually, throw it in the face of — the federal government.

Though I doubt Congress is the goat farmers are really trying to scape. Congress is just code for the Endangered Species Act, under which officials this year temporarily restricted the pumping of Delta water to farms and cities south of Tracy. (The act was invoked to protect the threatened Delta smelt, which is really just a convenient stand-in for the overall health of the entire Delta.)

So while those signs could have used any number of words besides “Congress,” the choice is a publicity winner.

Congress is an easy target. Who’s going to stick up for the federal government, especially when the victims of its callousness are hardworking men and women who provide a good deal of the nation’s nutrition?

Unfortunately, water scarcity in the valley can’t be remedied by blaming the government or a tiny fish, because federal meddling pales in comparison with the depth and breadth of what really vexes the region.

That unspoken problem is sustainability — and right now, we don’t have it.

California’s water system simply cannot be sustained as currently constructed. The state’s surface water supply is a finite resource, and sooner or later we’re going to have to act like it. Even if the state captured every ounce of water that flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, destroying what’s left of the Bay-Delta ecosystem in the process, we’d still eventually run out of the wet stuff.

That’s reality. It’s not a happy one, to be sure. But we ignore it at our own peril.

There are painful decisions to be made, especially about what’s the most important use of the water we have: Irrigating marginal land? Green parks in the San Fernando Valley? Protecting a functioning fishery? Maintaining some of the most productive farms in human history?

We don’t have enough water to do it all, and choosing will have flesh-and-blood effects.

Some of it will be downright devastating, but pretending we can change that with yellow signs of protest and marches on the local congressional office is not going to help. We’re only kidding ourselves that we can put off the day of reckoning indefinitely.

It’s better to face reality, even if that reality is decidedly unpleasant.

Thanks for First on the Fourth

The Fourth of July has long been a favorite holiday of mine.

The fireworks and ice-cold beer help, but the real reason is that it’s a set-aside day to celebrate what makes the United States great.

For me, that means the Constitution and Bill of Rights — the heart of the American experiment.

Working at a newspaper, I specifically treasure the First Amendment — the idea that the government cannot interfere with what you think, what you say, what you write, who you’re with or how you worship.

That, to me, is the brass-tacks beauty of America, and the reason why the Fourth of July will always have a place close to my heart.

• Share your thoughts with columnist Jon Mendelson at jmendelson@tracypress.com.