CA: State must boost water storage

InsideBayArea.com ^ | 12/19/08 | Editorial

[Amerigomag]

The statements are logical.

1) California has always had sufficient water for agriculture. The pursuit depends on the availability. Both cereal grain production and animal husbandry are available without intervention in the driest counties. As water supplies increase, the pursuit changes, culminating in rice production. Even the west side of the San Joaquin Valley was suitable for agriculture under Miller and Lux after the civil war. They simply drained the swamp, planted spring wheat and brought in Basques to tend their flocks.

2) Flood control projects are oft times only earthen berms with a hardened spillway whose capacity is substantially less than a storage reservoir. They simply cost a lot less to build. The San Luis Reservoir, a small, multipurpose facility, is a contemporary example of on the cheap.

3) Obvious on its face. Since agricultural holdings are diminishing by thousands of acres each year, ag isn't driving the water wagon. Although California's citizens are abandoning the state, its population is increasing due to illegal immigration and the elevated birth rates among 3 generations of these trespassers. Even with knowledge of only these two facts, it's logical that population increases, not agricultural expansion, are driving the need for more water storage. Control the population, through implementation of existing federal law and market forces, and you ameliorate the need for additional, expensive storage projects.