California Man Made Drought

[delldude]

The green war against San Joaquin Valley farmers.
 
And here we are four years later.....LOL
 

 
California has a new endangered species on its hands in the San Joaquin Valley—farmers. Thanks to environmental regulations designed to protect the likes of the three-inch long delta smelt, one of America's premier agricultural regions is suffering in a drought made worse by federal regulations. 
 
The state's water emergency is unfolding thanks to the latest mishandling of the Endangered Species Act. Last December, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued what is known as a "biological opinion" imposing water reductions on the San Joaquin Valley and environs to safeguard the federally protected hypomesus transpacificus, a.k.a., the delta smelt. As a result, tens of billions of gallons of water from mountains east and north of Sacramento have been channelled away from farmers and into the ocean, leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land fallow or scorched.
 
For this, Californians can thank the usual environmental suspects, er, lawyers. Last year's government ruling was the result of a 2006 lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other outfits objecting to increased water pumping in the smelt vicinity. In June, things got even dustier when the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that local salmon and steelhead also needed to be defended from the valley's water pumps. Those additional restrictions will begin to effect pumping operations next year.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204731804574384731898375624

 

 

 
"We have infrastructure dating from the 1960s for transporting water, but by the 1990s the policies had changed," said [California Central Valley farmer, lawyer, and representative] Valadao.
Environmental special interests managed to dismantle the system by diverting water meant for farms to pet projects, such as saving delta smelt, a baitfish. That move forced the flushing of 3 million acre-feet of water originally slated for the Central Valley into the ocean over the past five years.
 
California's system of aqueducts and storage tanks was designed long ago to take advantage of rain and mountain runoff from wet years and store it for use in dry years. But it's now inactive — by design. "California's forefathers built a system (of aqueducts and storage facilities) designed to withstand five years of drought,"
 
 Following legislative action last month by Speaker John Boehner and California's Central Valley Representatives David Valadao, Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy, whose Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act was designed to resolve the long-standing problem of environmental water cutbacks that have devastated America's richest farmland, Obama is grandstanding in California, too.

His aim, however, is not a long-term solution for California's now-constant water shortages that have hit its $45 billion agricultural industry, but to preach about global warming. Instead of blaming the man-made political causes of California's worst water shortage, he's come with $2 billion in "relief" that's nothing but a tired effort to divert attention from fellow Democrats' dereliction of duty in using the state's water infrastructure.
The one thing that will mitigate droughts in California — a permanent feature of the state — is to restore the water flow from California's water-heavy north to farmers in the central and south. That's just what House Bill 3964, which passed by a 229-191 vote last week, does.
But Obama's plan is not to get that worthy bill through the Senate (where Democrats are holding it up) but to shovel pork to environmental activists and their victims, insultingly offering out-of-work farmers a "summer meal plan" in his package.
http://www.caintv.com/global-warming-isnt-causing-ca

 

[xUT]

restore Hetch Hetchy today!
 

Modern engineering advances afford us the opportunity to remove the reservoir and create one of the most ambitious and exciting environmental restoration projects in human history. As a living laboratory, Hetch Hetchy will advance the science of restoration by providing biologists, ecologists and botanists from all over the world with the chance to apply cutting-edge science to re-establishing lost habitats.
 

View attachment 10018
 
Stupid is as stupid does...
 
Welcome to Kommieforinia were we save everything except ourselves.....
 

 

[delldude]

That link of yours is a green fairy tale coming true.
 
Reclaimed habitat, better than Gods.
 
I can see these envirowonks walking a foot off the ground through this
 
vast man repaired envirosystem staring in awe.

 

[eolesen]

I drove thru the Central Valley in December, and portions of it now look straight out pictures of the 1930's Dust Bowl.

There's no shortage of protest signs on the farmers' property placing the blame at the feet of the Democrats.

Water rights are going to be the next big battle out west. Years of drought in the Colorado River basin have left Lakes Powell and Mead at all time lows, which is where the Imperial Valley gets its water.

Mexico loves this -- they stand to become the primary provider of produce. They don't outlaw half the pesticides that the US and/or California does, and also don't have the labor laws we do, so even though there's a transportation cost involved, that gets offset by the other two factors.

As the supply chain gets used to the cheaper products from Mexico, look for more and more farms in the Central and Imperial Valley to shut down.

But hey, we'll have all those smelt and salmon to make up for the lost produce...

 

[delldude]

 
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Federal officials announced Friday that many California farmers caught in the state's drought can expect to receive no irrigation water this year from a vast system of rivers, canals and reservoirs interlacing the state.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its first outlook of the year, saying that the agency will continue to monitor rain and snow fall, but the grim levels so far prove that the state is in the throes of one of its driest periods in recorded history.
Unless the year turns wet, many farmers can expect to receive no water from the federally run Central Valley Project. Central Valley farmers received only 20 percent of their normal water allotment last year and were expecting this year's bad news. Some communities and endangered wildlife that rely on the federal water source will also suffer deep cuts.
"We will monitor the hydrology as the water year progresses and continue to look for opportunities to exercise operational flexibility," Reclamation Commissioner Michael L. Connor said in a written statement, noting that the state's snowpack is at 29 percent of average for this time of year.

 

[777 fixer]

Given the lack of precipitation this winter in California it's hard to call the drought man made.  
 
 http://news.yahoo.com/california-drought-space-nasa-photos-150921067.html
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/01/16/explosion-in-extreme-drought-in-california/

 

[777 fixer]

I drove thru the Central Valley in December, and portions of it now look straight out pictures of the 1930's Dust Bowl.

There's no shortage of protest signs on the farmers' property placing the blame at the feet of the Democrats.

Water rights are going to be the next big battle out west. Years of drought in the Colorado River basin have left Lakes Powell and Mead at all time lows, which is where the Imperial Valley gets its water.

Mexico loves this -- they stand to become the primary provider of produce. They don't outlaw half the pesticides that the US and/or California does, and also don't have the labor laws we do, so even though there's a transportation cost involved, that gets offset by the other two factors.

As the supply chain gets used to the cheaper products from Mexico, look for more and more farms in the Central and Imperial Valley to shut down.

But hey, we'll have all those smelt and salmon to make up for the lost produce...

 
Wow, you make Mexico sound like this awesome place and that we should try to emulate.  Guess that's why there's such a large number of them in this country.
 
Did you ever think that's a reason why a pesticide might be banned here?  Just look at the issues we've had in this country when it comes to the use of them.

 

[delldude]

I drove thru the Central Valley in December, and portions of it now look straight out pictures of the 1930's Dust Bowl.

There's no shortage of protest signs on the farmers' property placing the blame at the feet of the Democrats.

Water rights are going to be the next big battle out west. Years of drought in the Colorado River basin have left Lakes Powell and Mead at all time lows, which is where the Imperial Valley gets its water.

Mexico loves this -- they stand to become the primary provider of produce. They don't outlaw half the pesticides that the US and/or California does, and also don't have the labor laws we do, so even though there's a transportation cost involved, that gets offset by the other two factors.

As the supply chain gets used to the cheaper products from Mexico, look for more and more farms in the Central and Imperial Valley to shut down.

But hey, we'll have all those smelt and salmon to make up for the lost produce...

 
I forget the grab, er I mean law....but the fed owns the water in the ground now.
 
Make you think some affluent country with a guilt complex from a life style above the rest  of the world is spreading the wealth.

 

[Ms Tree]

I drove thru the Central Valley in December, and portions of it now look straight out pictures of the 1930's Dust Bowl.

There's no shortage of protest signs on the farmers' property placing the blame at the feet of the Democrats.

Water rights are going to be the next big battle out west. Years of drought in the Colorado River basin have left Lakes Powell and Mead at all time lows, which is where the Imperial Valley gets its water.

Mexico loves this -- they stand to become the primary provider of produce. They don't outlaw half the pesticides that the US and/or California does, and also don't have the labor laws we do, so even though there's a transportation cost involved, that gets offset by the other two factors.

As the supply chain gets used to the cheaper products from Mexico, look for more and more farms in the Central and Imperial Valley to shut down.

But hey, we'll have all those smelt and salmon to make up for the lost produce...

You must be right.  the agri business has a proven track record of being responsible care takers of the fields and streams.  We should give them cart blanch to continue their good work.
 
~sigh~

 

[eolesen]

Wow, you make Mexico sound like this awesome place and that we should try to emulate.  Guess that's why there's such a large number of them in this country.
 
Did you ever think that's a reason why a pesticide might be banned here?  Just look at the issues we've had in this country when it comes to the use of them.

We didn't used to import produce to the degree we now do. Why is that?

 

[delldude]

Maybe the gov't done good for once.
 

 
LYTLE CREEK (CBSLA.com) — Is 2014 a repeat of the great Gold Rush of 1849?
Prospectors in Southern California are heading to the hills, saying the severe drought has exposed gold that has never been touched by human hands. As water levels continue to drop more nooks and crannies are easier for these gold hunters to access.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/02/24/prospectors-say-drought-has-created-californias-2nd-gold-rush/

 

[777 fixer]

We didn't used to import produce to the degree we now do. Why is that?

 
NAFTA didn't help.  Or maybe agricultural land being plowed under to make way for development.  Take Orange County, California for example.  At one time it was one big orange groove.  Now there are only three commercial orange grooves there.  Those being relatively small.  

 

[777 fixer]

Looks like there might be some relief.
 
http://ktla.com/2014/02/26/pair-of-storms-headed-to-socal-residents-scramble-to-prepare/#axzz2ubXTTqOv

 

[eolesen]

Nope, that's not relief, it's all on the wrong side of the mountains.

Look for massive mudslides... lack of live vegetation means there's little to nothing to hold the ground in place, and that's going to be ugly in a few places along the coast and in the foothills.

 

[delldude]

Edgar Cayce