Posted on 04/16/2015 11:14:46 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The blistering drought that has Californians timing their showers, driving dirty cars and staring at brown lawns and empty swimming pools is a “man-made disaster,” according to critics, who say the Golden State’s misguided environmental policies allow much-needed freshwater to flow straight into the Pacific.
In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state’s population exploded to nearly 40 million people.
~snip~
“This is a man-made disaster,” said Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research. “Southern California is an arid part of the world where droughts -- even severe droughts -- are commonplace, and knowing this, you’d think the government of California would have included this mathematical certainty in its disaster preparedness planning, but the government has done nothing, not even store rain, as the population has continued to grow.”
~snip~
The critics say California gets plenty of water to meet its needs, if it were only managed properly. More than half of California’s surface water flows from the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east down to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California. Much of the mountain runoff is managed by two of the world’s largest water storage and transport systems – the federal Central Valley Project and California's State Water Project.
~snip~
Environmentalists have since stopped the construction of water storage and delivery systems through legal and political actions. They have also fought to ensure that captured water is released into streams and the ocean -- rather than the water delivery system -- in order to boost fish populations and dilute the salinity of the delta.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
two words .... snail darter
Being stupid has consequences. it sometimes takes so long for the consequences to appear that not just the stupid are hurt
That is the shame of it isn’t it?
Radical Greens will be cross with you if you try to take away their mantle of righteousness.
But how dare you spell out failures like these (joke). All that you hear from liberals is their intentions. They can never, ever be wrong on that front.
dam the snail darter ...
The simple answer to wasting water on smelt and other useless beasts is to charge the EPA a fair price for the water they divert.
Once again, unintended consequences is met with good intentions. Meanwhile people die, economies ruined and they blame the republicans.
How to fix it? Raise taxes!
Brilliant
That's a mantra of idiots. Building stuff won't make it rain. It will just cost us lots of money to have more empty reservoirs. We'll need the money for natural gas-fired electric power plants to replace the hydro-electric power that will stop when existing reservoirs empty.
The real problem is that the 20th Century was the wettest hundred-year period in the Southwest since 1000 A.D. Just a return to normal rainfall and snow out here means a 1/3 drop in what we've been used to. A real drought will drop our water by 2/3. Long droughts in the Southwest last a century or two.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/drying-west/kunzig-text
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4EWHPU/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Well that is certainly NOT TRUE. Environmental policy is this country is aimed at the reduction (if not the elimination) of the human population. Humans must die so that fish and trees can live.
That policy is being conducted with near perfection by Jerry Brown, the California legislature and the California bureaucracy. Who could possibly do a better job than that team?
The word ‘critics’ in the title immediately sets up anyone who understands the situation as the enemy.
This is due to the environmentalists' hatred of man and their premise that nature possesses intrinsic value and is valuable in and of itself apart from all contribution to human life and well being.
How do those jobs get filled? Cut off the benefits of everyone who could work.
The Invasion is the Dems way of adding to their voting base. If you are going to impose radical solutions on the people of the state of California or any other state or the nation then you need a clear and long term majority.
The Dems are playing a long game. Get a solid voting majority and then shove the environmental, LGBT, anti-gun and Marxist crap down our throats.
Two more words.....democrats fault.
Like!
Everything liberals do is a disaster.
They not only stopped building dams... THEY TORE THEM DOWN! I found with a little research these idiots have torn down over 500+ dams in the US in recent years!
THEN what little water was left... Obama released into the ocean for some little fish no one ever heard of or cared about.
THEN liberals prevented desalination plants from being built, because they would produce salt waste.
THEN they welcomed in 10’s of millions of illegal alien invaders who collectively use up about 1 TRILLION gallons of water each year.
And PRESTO!!! Crisis !
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