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The most amazing truth about California's water crisis
American Thinker ^ | 7/12/15 | Newsmachete

Posted on 07/12/2015 9:32:34 AM PDT by Nachum

I read with great interest an article by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes about the real cause of the water shortages in California.

In the summer of 2002, shortly before I was elected to Congress, I sat through an eye-opening meeting with representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council... they told me something astonishing:

Their goal was to remove 1.3 million acres of farmland from production. They showed me maps that laid out their whole plan: From Merced all the way down to Bakersfield, and on the entire west side of the Valley as well as part of the east side, productive agriculture would end and the land would return to some ideal state of nature.

... large Democratic majorities in Congress passed [a water restriction act] in 1992... [Bush #1 was President in 1992] The act stipulated that 800,000 acre-feet of water — or 260 billion gallons — on the Valley's west side had to be diverted annually to environmental causes, with an additional 400,000 acre-feet later being diverted annually to wildlife refuges.

Lawsuits filed by the NRDC and similar organizations forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue, respectively, biological opinions on smelt (in 2008) and on salmon (in 2009). These opinions virtually ended operation of the Jones and Banks pumping plants — the two major pumping stations that move San Joaquin River Delta water — and resulted in massive diversions of water for environmental purposes.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; crisis; nrdc; truth; water
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To: blueunicorn6
The ILLEGAL ALIEN cook gets all the food from the supermarket.

There, added a little spice to the last part of that.

21 posted on 07/12/2015 10:06:07 AM PDT by Bernard (The Road To Hell is not paved with good results.)
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To: Nachum

Control the food control the people

Why does Ukraine come to mind?


22 posted on 07/12/2015 10:07:40 AM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S. Feel the Trump-mentum!)
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To: Nachum

Okay, then I guess the people are going to eat the trees and bushes instead of the veggies and fruits grown on that land now? Growing and exporting produce to big chain markets in other states is big business in Cali, too...


23 posted on 07/12/2015 10:08:32 AM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: Nachum
"So in other words, there is plenty of water available, but more than 200 billion gallons a year is simply discarded to favor the fish."

According to this author we are not having a historic drought and we have PLENTY of water available.

Plenty?

Apparently the author DOES NOT LIVE HERE!

It's all kinds of dry and the season is early. We have3 500 yr old trees dying for lack of water, in large numbers.

We don't have plenty of water and the writer doesn't know what he's talking about.

Yes, there's MAJOR issues with how the water we DO have is used, but to contend there's "plenty" shows he doesn't know what he's talking about.

24 posted on 07/12/2015 10:11:50 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Mariner

Last year hubs and I drove up to Reno.

It was terrifying how the trees looked like they were dying.

I’ve never seen that before.


25 posted on 07/12/2015 10:15:43 AM PDT by Califreak (Hope and Che'nge is killing U.S. Feel the Trump-mentum!)
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To: blueunicorn6

” What we got here is a failure to communicate”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A


26 posted on 07/12/2015 10:17:18 AM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: Nachum

so what....... it’s California, or any way was


27 posted on 07/12/2015 10:18:05 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: Nachum; All

28 posted on 07/12/2015 10:19:58 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: bgill

Besmirching works. Every time it’s tried.

California once led the world in terms of turning semi-arid, marginal land into a productive and fertile agricultural breadbasket, and also in more automated harvest of those crops. There are no longer persons dragging sacks behind and plucking cotton balls off the dead cotton plants, now that collection is almost completely automated with specialized cotton-picking machines, one operator crossing the field much more swiftly and collecting more cotton balls in minutes than a crew on the ground could do in an hour. Or perhaps in a day.

Many other crops are much less labor-intensive than formerly, as various new technology gets applied in the field, and irregularities of fertility, nutrients, or soil structure are taken into account, maximizing each acre in production. One of the problems had been that perhaps the methods were TOO productive, resulting in a surfeit of produce that tended to flood the market at inopportune times, reducing the all-important return on investment.

That was a large part of the reason that most of the smaller producers had gone out of the business of extracting a viable and useful commodity and marketing it. It just made more economic sense to consolidate and concentrate the ownership of land, machinery and the tools of planting, nurturing, harvesting and marketing the foodstuffs and fiber into fewer and fewer hands.


29 posted on 07/12/2015 10:20:57 AM PDT by alloysteel (If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers.)
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To: Califreak
"It was terrifying how the trees looked like they were dying."

It's a LITTLE better this year due to the rains in the mountains this summer.

But it's damn hard to go into the3 wilderness and see such devastation.

Simply heartbreaking.

Plenty of Water?

The writer is an idiot.

30 posted on 07/12/2015 10:30:43 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Nachum; FReepers; Patriots; FRiends



California Desalination
Because it's not pretty

31 posted on 07/12/2015 10:39:13 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society)
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To: Mariner
i just had a quick look and i predict... massive forest fires coming soon to California.

http://mediablackoutusa.com/at-least-12-million-trees-are-dead-because-of-californias-drought/

32 posted on 07/12/2015 10:40:12 AM PDT by TangibleDisgust ("To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." - Voltaire)
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To: NormsRevenge
Lawsuits filed by the NRDC and similar organizations forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue, respectively, biological opinions

This has become standard procedure for progressive-left government to get what it wants, even though Congress, Legislatures, and the people do not want it. Create an issue, have outside pressure group sue, find court to enforce it, government agency then says "sorry, I have no choice" and policy is implemented. At same time, government funds go to said outside pressure group for "education" or other nonsense excuses to keep them in business.

33 posted on 07/12/2015 10:40:24 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Lady Jag

It took 12 years to get the permit for Carlsbad which opens next year. The same groups appeared at every administrative hearing. Then when they struck out they got to go to court and sue to shit down the project. 12 years to turn the shovel. 3-4 bites of the apple should be enough.


34 posted on 07/12/2015 10:42:03 AM PDT by morphing libertarian (defund Obama care and amnesty. Impeach for Benghazi and IRS and fast and furious.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The judges make the taxpayers pay their costs.


35 posted on 07/12/2015 10:42:56 AM PDT by morphing libertarian (defund Obama care and amnesty. Impeach for Benghazi and IRS and fast and furious.)
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To: Nachum

California needs to bring in another 10 million illegals to share their water with... It’ll make Mexico happy...


36 posted on 07/12/2015 10:43:26 AM PDT by GOPJ (If it wasn't for massive immigration the Democrat party would have already gone extinct -FeeperReese)
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To: Pride in the USA

I thought this was interesting.


37 posted on 07/12/2015 10:43:56 AM PDT by lonevoice (Life is short. Make fun of it.)
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To: Mariner

If you’re in Cal, look west. There is plenty of water.


38 posted on 07/12/2015 10:44:28 AM PDT by morphing libertarian (defund Obama care and amnesty. Impeach for Benghazi and IRS and fast and furious.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Born of the same era as the EPA

All of those agencies created in the '70s to placate the howling hippies should be abolished.

39 posted on 07/12/2015 10:52:58 AM PDT by JennysCool (My hypocrisy goes only so far)
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To: Nachum

I would like to leave Californiastan and life under the oppressive regime, but my husband says he was born here and he will die here. That may happen sooner than he expects.( Don’t get excited. I am mostly kidding.)


40 posted on 07/12/2015 10:56:50 AM PDT by Calpublican (No Comprendo)
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