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 ...
No, you were originally right.
Destroy our nation, and many others are doomed.
Just as incredible as this story sounds, if predicted even ten years ago, these people want fewer humans on planet earth.
This is how you accomplish that.
This is a direct attack on our nation’s food supply.
Doesn’t take a brain trust to grasp what that will lead to.
Even with friends in California I have never understood its management. It always seems to be the opposite of common sense with destructive legislations and fruity people.
California should have never been allowed to enter the union as such a big one..
It eventually fell under the dictate of rail barons and bankers.. And now. Well.
It should have been split up long ago.
One has to wonder if the true intent was to make sure it was never manageable and thus exploitable.
That’s a perfect situation when your goals are destruction of the economy and destabilization of society.
Their objective is to turn kali back into wilderness. Such stupidity can only be found there.
Cal used to be a leader building roads
Colleges and that was under a dem. Wilson and duke did
Ok as
Repubs
Now it’s
Totally out of
Whack
And la
And sf have the votes
Drive
The votes
A similar situation arose in Texas in 2009 when the flow of the Guadalupe River was cut and a couple dozen whooping cranes died.
The issue is about minimum flows.
Some say that any drop of water reaching the ocean is wasted water. Others say that there has to be a minimum flow, but they may not be able to agree as to exactly how much the minimum flow should be.
Often this is covered by water rights such a Reserved Water Rights.
OTOH, under prior appropriation water rights there is the "highest beneficial use" clause and traditionally agriculture was/is the highest beneficial use and economic output of the oceans is not considered. And in modern times, water reserved for recreational use has a higher economic output than some ag products. Utilizing water for golf courses or trout fishing generates more economic output than using the water to grow a low value crop like hay or potatoes.
In CA the minimum flow on the rivers varies a lot with the northcoast rivers having higher minimum flows than the southern rivers. Often that will be because they are designated as Wild and Scenic.
Minimum flow is a volume amount but the quality of the water affects it and rivers carrying a lot of ag chemicals result in dead zones in the coastal waters.
I think the writer meant we WOULD have had plenty of water to see us through the drought had it not been diverted into the ocean.
Told you it was man made.
No surprise here, really.
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