California's Perpetual Drought Is Manmade And Intentional

Epoch Times ^ | 05/01/2024 | Roger Canfield

[SeekAndFind]

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) last week released its next five-year plan for the State Water Project—Update 2023. After years of meetings, California’s premier water agency has decided to focus on “three intersecting themes: addressing climate urgency, strengthening watershed resilience, and achieving equity in water management.”


Lake Shasta Dam in Shasta Lake, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Water supplies for California’s 40 million people and the planet’s most productive agriculture have third- to fifth-level priority.

There is nothing new here, except to publicly admit to betraying the public trust. Really?

Over several decades, the public has been deceived into voting for water bonds that have little new water in them—phony promises to build new water storage and aqueducts. About 12 percent of bond funds are spent on new water storage. The rest of the bond funds have been squandered on scores of local and special-interest environmental projects, e.g., tearing down four Klamath-area dams—killing fish to save them—and opposing substantial new water projects, e.g., raising Shasta Dam and building Auburn Dam.

Further, by California law, water must be equitably distributed, pumped “equally”—half to human beings (if you count agriculture) and half to fish (the water-short Pacific Ocean, 187 quadrillion gallons). During the big rains of 2024, about 90 percent of the water was flushed to the Pacific through the gills of perhaps a half dozen delta smelt.

Farmers call it a manmade drought.

The politicos halted humans “taking” water, “diverting” it, from fish. Under the U.S. Constitution, the taking of private property requires just compensation—not mass confiscation. Water rights are a complex species of property.

“Our findings show that atmospheric river activity exceeds what has occurred since instrumental record keeping began,” said Clarke Knight, a U.S. Geological Survey research geographer.

Still, DWR scheduled 2024 meetings of the Drought Resilience Interagency & Partners (DRIP) Collaborative for April, July, and October.

The DRIP fantasy continues despite a deluge of 2024 water from two winters of giant “rivers in the sky” dumping excesses of water and creating massive floods and landslides.

Recent massive atmospheric rivers, Ark events, are small compared to ancient monster storms that occurred long before human beings had any impact whatsoever on climate, let alone weather.

Despite plentiful rainfall, DWR continued to limit pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Central Valley agriculture to 30–40 percent to protect native fish. Nonnative bass are likely the greatest dangers to native fish. DWR insisted that its ability to move water south has been “impacted by the presence of threatened and endangered fish species.”

Those water districts’ contractors, paying the full cost of State Water Project (SWP) water, thought otherwise.

Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, stated: “While we are glad to see this modest allocation, it is still far below the amount of water we need. There is a lot of water in the system, California reservoirs are full, and runoff from snowpack melt is still to come. Even in a good water year, moving water effectively and efficiently under the current regime is difficult.”

California’s drought fixation is entirely manmade. In the past, in wet years, the waters of the Sacramento River, greater than the mighty Colorado, turned the Central Valley into an inland sea.

For over a century, California visionaries followed the lead of the Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Romans, and Nabataeans as well as the Aztecs before them. C.R. Rockwood, William Mulholland, Michael O’Shaughnessy, Gov. Pat Brown, and Gov. Ronald Reagan built dams and aqueducts to store and distribute water and to provide flood protection and hydroelectricity “too cheap to meter.”

As I have said before, California wastes tens of billions of dollars’ worth (at a conservative $100–$200 an acre-foot) of precious fresh water to save handfuls of delta smelt and “restore” salmon runs where salmon never ran before.

As I’ve also mentioned before, tyrannical water police order city folk, who use only 8 percent of California’s water, to drink recycled toilet water and to live on 55 gallons a day. The serfs may bathe every other Saturday whether they need it or not. California demands that its residents take a water conservation pledge: And to the utopia for which it stands. Neighbors turn neighbors in for “wasting” water, not to mention life, liberty, and property.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

[Jonty30]

Yes it is. It’s an easy thing to capture the runoff from the Sierra mountains. They just choose not to.

[dfwgator]

“Forget it, Jake.”

[bgill]

Thank goodness illegals don’t need water for anything.

[jcon40]

Proof of self sabotage

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Proof of self sabotage

The Arabian states solved their centuries-old water problem by building desalination plants, something California, who is engaged in self-suicide, refuses to do.

[j.havenfarm]

This year marks the 10th birthday of the voters approving the Sites Reservoir, an offstream reservoir in the northwestern Sacramento Valley. With an impoundment of 1.8 million acre feet, it would nominally provide water for 5.4 million people. The state has slow walked it. They do what the voters command when they are agree with the voters; otherwise they blow off the mandate of the people. Likewise a few years ago the voters handily approved retaining and streamlining the death penalty. Newsom simply announced that no one will be executed while he is governor

[cpdiii]

“Forget it, Jake.”
It is Newsom town.

[laplata]

Thanks for posting this. Will read tomorrow.

[TigersEye]

King Clone

A ring of creosote bushes that are estimated to be 11,700 years old. Lucerne Valley, California

Gee, I wonder how long desert/drought conditions have existed in California?

Here's a hint, Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata) only grows in the driest deserts.

[cpdiii]

"The Arabian states solved their centuries-old water problem by building desalination plants, something California, who is engaged in self-suicide, refuses to do.

. California has ample water if used properly. California has ample water if exploited properly via dams which they are now insanely destroying. A massive amount of water is released in to the ocean so the delta smelt does not go extinct. Our environmental regulations are insane. If the Delta Smelt become extinct it will effect humanity not at all. If the farmers that need that water do not get it, we will be effected across the nation via higher price for vegetables, meat and grain, at the supermarket.

99.9% of past life on earth is now extinct, as we will be in the future. Probably by our own hand in the near future. If not by our own hand it will just be changes of earth's climate and atmosphere, none of which is by man as man did not exist during these the great die off of life on earth.

This has happened 3 times in the geologic past. That is just nature and evolution and planet changes by nature. I do not give a damn about the Delta Smelt as they will effect nothing if extinct. The environmental regulations go into extreme detail about how we must protect the environment. Not mentioned is the cost of saving a species and the cost to man but the balance between the species, cost to man, and the environmental changes if a species go extinct.

[ifinnegan]

Even it rainfall breaks records they say there’s a drought.

[Bernard]

Maybe the Bel Airabs should look into this and get a project started. “Drill for water, baby! Drill!”

[DIRTYSECRET]

*California has ample water if used properly.*

Doesn’t matter. If government does it’s job no one notices. I then gives the left an easy way to find something to bitch about, even if it means making things up.

[Organic Panic]

To be fair.... The aquafers have been sucked dry. When I was a kid we had a hand dug well less than 20 feet. (70s) Now... I think they are having to drill hundreds of feet down. That still doesn’t excuse the water released for the sake of some stupid minnows.

[GenXPolymath]

By law 50% of all river flows must be left for environmental.use regardless of the flow amounts or how wet the year is. The percentage is based on total flow at any given time unless it reaches a minimum and then mandatory limits are set for diversions from the river channel. In dry times the flow may be 60 to 100 environmental flows with zero or reduced withdrawals. During wet times withdrawals can never exceed 50%. Don’t like it then the California legislature must put a law on.The governors desk and they must sign it or get a veto proof majority and override the governor’s veto. That’s the process and it won’t never happen in California so it’s moot.