A bunch of my friends are farmers in the California Delta and were it not for the environmental concerns then the misnamed “Bay Delta Conservation Project” would be reality. The BDCP was simply the marketing package for the LA water tunnels...which are still in play.
The BDCP plan was for LA to seize 175,000 acres of farmland, dispossess 45,000 people of their homes at prices of typically 1% to 5% of market value, and then turn the California Delta into a salt water estuary.
All of this so LA real estate interests would be able to develop California City (where a coincidental HSR station is planned), and then to develop San Bernadino County. The cost to Northern California be damned.
So if a fish can stop LA from raping Northern California and turning it into a desert then God bless the fish!
The solution to california’s water problem is to collapse the cost of water desalination so water from the colorado river and the sierra nevadas doesn’t need to be piped to southern california.
The maddening thing is that Israel and Singapore have already got desalinated seawater costs to under $500@acre foot. That’s close to being cheaper than the water from the california aqueduct.
Whereas the latest and greatest US poiseden plant in southern california does the job for $2000@acre foot.