Posted on 01/21/2024 1:27:38 PM PST by Mariner
During California’s most recent drought, officials went to great lengths to safeguard water supplies, issuing emergency regulations to curb use by thousands of farms, utilities and irrigation districts.
It still wasn’t enough to prevent growers in the state’s agricultural heartland from draining dry several miles of a major river for almost four months in 2022, in a previously unreported episode that raises questions about California’s ability to monitor and manage its water amid worsening droughts.
It’s not uncommon, during dry spells, for farmers and other water users in California to draw streams down to a trickle in places. But the severity and duration of the 2022 decline of the river in this case, the Merced, where one stream gauge showed zero water moving past it nearly every day from June to early October, stood out even to experts.
“I was very surprised to see a river of this size without water,” said Jon Ambrose, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries service who visited the Merced’s parched riverbed that August. “This just isn’t something we see. This isn’t something that should be seen as normal.”
The Merced River originates in Yosemite National Park. It rushes through glacier-carved canyons and winds for about 60 miles through the Central Valley before pouring into the San Joaquin River, which nourishes the valley’s southern half.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I’d like to see a comparison of the water used by the farms versus the water used by Greater LA and surroundings. With all the water sources/reservoirs and other sources locked up by Mulholland, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were more.
I call bullshit.
What about all the water purposefully let flow for the supposed endangered Snail Darter and other whimsical notions by the leftards in charge in California?
I’d prefer the farmers farm and the world’s food supply stays viable.
Why not get smart and start by building a pipeline from the overflowing Great Lakes?
Why in the hell are they not building salinization plants what the hell in wrong with these complete idiots?? ALL the damn money wasted on a bullet train that WILL NEVER be completed!!
Here’s a PDF touching on California exports.
One thing it doesn’t touch on, is Californa’s total
production vs how much it exported. It could be that
while California is a large exporter, it could also
still be selling plenty across the U. S. also.
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/PDFs/2022_Exports_Publication.pdf
Hmmm, the WEF has been trying to declare farming a crime. So of course the NYT immediately prints this hit piece on farmers. It’s like they’re in NAZI goose step?
WEF wants farming to be declared a crime?
Sounds legit.
This says a lot about the mentality of the NYT. Water resources in California aren't "under strain" because of their pet cause of climate change. Their under strain because California refuses to build up new sources of fresh water, and squanders or even shuts down the sources that it already has.
I agree completely with that. You don't really know anything about that which you are complaining about.
I grew up on acreage. We had cows and horses. The property had been used the same way since the mid 1800s. My grandmother's house was built in the 1870s. When I was a kid I often had to chase the cows out of the lower pasture that the creek ran through. There was still salmon that came up the creek to spawn. Somehow they didn't seem to be affected by cows and horses and wildlife drinking from the creek.
The surrounding area began to get more and more developed. storm drains were routed into the creek. Fertilizer from people's yards would run into the storm drains when it rained and this caused weeds to start growing in the creek which caused the flow to be impeded. When it rained the creek stated flooding. An area which had been used to grow hay for a hundred years stated turning into a marshy mess.
Of course, all the ecologically conscious neighbors began complaining that our cows were getting too close to the creek. At first we were allowed to put a fence up on both sides of the creek to keep them away, but after a while we were not allowed to have cows in the lower pasture at all which made up the largest part of our land and had been the most productive.
The salmon of course no longer made it up the creek not because of our cows but because of the weeds and the lowered oxygen level in the water from the fertilizers and other chemicals from people's yards.
But what really finished the salmon run off for good was the chemical form release compound from the company above us. They made concrete manholes, pipes and other large items. When they rinsed off their forms the runoff was allowed to run into the creek. The creek smelled like the concrete company. Nothing was done about that for years despite our complaints.
Instead, hearings were held about whether we should be allowed to have cows or horses on our property at all. Yes, our property's value was destroyed by all the flooding and chemicals that were washed down the storm drains which clogged the creek. Yet we found that we were the scapegoats who were blamed for the salmon run dying off.
So yes, unfortunately, I do know something about environmentally conscious leftist eco-warriors such as yourself. I found out that they were all a bunch of virtue signaling goons who blame everything on others when they are sometimes the primary cause of the problem.
So, you go ahead and lay naked in the middle of the highway somewhere to protest the oil industry, hydroelectric dams, and global warming... but watch out when a hostile farmer driving a big tractor. He might not see you.
Again, you show your ignorance of water use in the Big Valley.
And again, you display your new virtue signaling lefty eco-loon persona. Your entire argument is based on a foundation of nonsense. When you hamper the activities of farmers what you end up with is less food. All of your crying and foot stomping over what is in fact complete BS is no excuse for attacking farmers.
You are emoting over a romantic, idyllic image of your childhood in an area that is most certainly NOT the Central Valley.
There hasn’t been a native salmon south of Merced in 70 years.
And the reason is most certainly habitat destruction at the feet of big farmers. Worse, the vast majority of that production ships out of state, with a majority leaving the country.
Now, you can say that’s OK as ultimately they produce food and bring money back home to their families.
But to deny the destruction of over farming in this valley is delusional.
What I have experience with is the ability of virtue signaling leftist eco-loons to intentionally mischaracterize actual situations and get people such as yourself all worked up. Fingers are pointed in the wrong direction and all sorts of damage is done over nothing.
This is one of the defining characteristics of a country which has 20% more lawyers than doctors. I am sad that you have been taken in and nothing that I say is likely to change your position. This is the same experience as when you interact with global warming/climate change advocates. Your beliefs are being manipulated by those whose agenda is completely different than how it is being presented.
My folks owned a feed store in NE Oklahoma. I remember farmers and ranchers coming to town in their new pickups. They sold some cows, or had a good crop.
Within a month, they were at the store to buy something. The bed would be crushed in on one side, and the tail gate missing. Next time the bed was gone , and a steel flatbed was in its place. Never saw one stay nice very long.
I was born and raised here.
I can see it with my own eyes. Anyone who’s been here for a decade or more can see it too. Hell, in most cases you can see it just driving through Firebaugh on a hot August evening.
But you continue to emote because some enviro nuts screwed your family farm.
Nobody influences my views on this matter. I influence others.
You are exactly the same as the people who lived around us. You think that you know what you are talking about and can come up with all sorts of reasons to put farms out of business. Would it make any difference? Likely not. The politicians of California are on your side and have been screwing farmers for decades and it has not helped change anything... has it?
Your head is up your ass so far that you are living on the co2 that all the the other liberal kooks live on in California
Your head is up your ass so far that you are living on the co2 that all the the other liberal kooks live on in California
“Your head is up your ass so far that you are living on the co2 that all the the other liberal kooks live on in California”
You know nothing about the subject.
after this last winter, the rivers are full again and so is the ground water. why post something referring to 2022 spring and summer.
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