Rep. Devin Nunes, a Tulare Republican, called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to resign Friday – not over taxes, but water.

Nunes said he was none too thrilled by Schwarzenegger’s speech Friday at the San Luis Reservoir outside Los Banos at a California March for Water rally. The governor spoke about his efforts to seek permanent solutions to the state’s water problems, including new dams and a conveyance that can transfer water around the Delta without harming endangered species.

Schwarzenegger led chants of “We need water! We need water!” He told the crowd he has been working on the problems for the last five years to “create a water infrastructure that is for 38 million people rather than 18 million people.”

But Nunes said he wanted to hear the governor promise to seek a federal waiver of the Endangered Species Act so Delta water pumps can transfer their full capacity of water to the San Joaquin Valley now. Environmental restrictions and drought conditions have curtailed water deliveries this year, and unemployment has approached 40 percent in some farming towns like Mendota.

Nunes said Schwarzenegger should resign because he has “utterly failed.”

“He’s had five, six years in office to figure this water situation out, and he hasn’t done it,” Nunes said by phone. “Then he shows up to the San Joaquin Valley today and says nothing. You’ve got to turn the pumps on in the Delta, and we have to go back to historic levels. This is not a drought like it’s being portrayed in the news. This is a man-made drought.”