Posted on 05/01/2015 7:17:51 AM PDT by dennisw
“You know, I believe people knew this was likely in the 1970s, but enviros stopped the necessary water projects,” Glenn Reynolds wrote as an aside in September while linking to an article titled “American Southwest has 80% chance of decade-long drought this century.” Today at City Journal, Victor Davis Hanson flashes back to when California enviro-leftists began the countdown on the state’s existence:
Brown and other Democratic leaders will never concede that their own opposition in the 1970s (when California had about half its present population) to the completion of state and federal water projects, along with their more recent allowance of massive water diversions for fish and river enhancement, left no margin for error in a state now home to 40 million people. Second, the mandated restrictions will bring home another truth as lawns die, pools empty, and boutique gardens shrivel in the coastal corridor from La Jolla to Berkeley: the very idea of a 20-million-person corridor along the narrow, scenic Pacific Ocean and adjoining foothills is just as unnatural as “big” agriculture’s Westside farming. The weather, climate, lifestyle, views, and culture of coastal living may all be spectacular, but the arid Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay-area megalopolises must rely on massive water transfers from the Sierra Nevada, Northern California, or out-of-state sources to support their unnatural ecosystems.
Now that no more reservoir water remains to divert to the Pacific Ocean, the exasperated Left is damning “corporate” agriculture (“Big Ag”) for “wasting” water on things like hundreds of thousands of acres of almonds and non-wine grapes. But the truth is that corporate giants like “Big Apple,” “Big Google,” and “Big Facebook” assume that their multimillion-person landscapes sit atop an aquifer. They don’t—at least, not one large enough to service their growing populations. Our California ancestors understood this; they saw, after the 1906 earthquake, that the dry hills of San Francisco and the adjoining peninsula could never rebuild without grabbing all the water possible from the distant Hetch Hetchy watershed. I have never met a Bay Area environmentalist or Silicon Valley grandee who didn’t drink or shower with water imported from a far distant water project.
just an excerpt!! go to the source for the full article
VDH never disappoints.
Thanks dennisw.
IMO the only one that had the insight and forethought that translated into substantive action for California was Mulholland. As bad as he screwed water rights owners, he at least had the benefit of thinking beyond his lifetime actually benefit their realm.
There is no one I can think of today in California public service that does that in any shape form or fashion.
When will the land of fruits and nuts ever learn? Republicans better not waste a dime contesting this liberal utopia. The people here are content and perfectly fine with over regulation and high taxes (and illegals) It is in their DNA. All aboard the Moonbeam Express train wreck!
Jerry Brown wanted to be like his dad. The problem was, Edmond was a thinker, and a visionary in some senses. Jerry on the other hand is and has always been a moron. And people vote for him only because he has a “D” after his name. He left Oakland in shambles, his ties to Willie Brown left the state with over 500 billion in unfunded pensions, and yes Jerry helped create the drought situation we are in now. It’s just like Solar energy. The Sierra Club working with the Democrats blocked almost all permits during Arnolds rule, and when Brown was elected they stopped blocking them. Purely political. This is why the Democrats can not be trusted in California. They use money and power to destroy solutions if they didn’t make them or they were passed when they were not in power. they don’t care about the state or the people. It’s party over People
In the 1800s, the area from central Kansas to the Pacific was known as THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT for a reason. It was a desert.
In 1831, Mountain man Jedediah Smith was killed by Comanches while searching for water on the Santa Fe Trail. It was so dry that year that many springs and water holes had dried up.
Thanks______ Much appreciated plus lets concede (I agree w you) that Democrat “Pat” Edmond Brown was a visionary and far superior to Jerry the moonbeam when it came (comes) to water projects
Kind of interesting that denying water projects is coming around to bite Jerry Brown now that he governor again after 30 years
The party’s OVER, people..................
I have worked with various public entities: Ca. Dept. of Water Resources, East Bay Mud, SF PUD, LADWP, Orange County Water, OC Sanitation.
I have found at the lower levels the engineers to be capable, but lacking experience, smart, but in need of training, eager to do what is right, but also: Their hands are tied by higher ups and politicians. As these people mature in their positions they become: resigned to the situation, unwilling to make decisions, and simply passing the paper work through so as to cover their butts.
By “public service” I meant elected or appointed. Not the rank and file.
There was the federal Central Valley Project and federal dams on the Colorado plus others like Shasta Dam in CA.
There was the State Water Project(1960), which was 14 billion in 2014 dollars.
In 2000 CA voters approved close to 6 billion. Another $8 billion in 2002. Another $11 billion in 2005.
In Nov 2014 voters approved another $7.5 billion. This really began in the 2009 state lege as $11 billion but they didn't have enough votes to pass it in 2010 so they didn't put it on the ballot. Same thing in 2012. So, in 2014, the lege cut it back to $7.5 billion and the voters approved it(Proposition 1).
The feds don't spend money like they used to. CA would like to raise the height of Shasta dam, but Congress will have to approve the money.
Everybody likes to get their information by reading political websites, but they need to be reading at the California Dept of Water Resources, California State Water Plan, California WaterFix.com, or about Proposition 1, or previous water bond votes. Or you might want to read the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and many many others.
I read all about Mulholland and was aware of the limited geographical area he was concerned about - mainly because it was within his area of responsibility. However, his efforts reached far beyond the confines of that locality.
If Californians as a whole were/are so prescient with respect to future sustainability, they’d have hunted down illegals and rabid liberal bureaucrats with a passion and removed them.
Since around 1978, Brown has had 2 nicknames...
1) “Medfly” Brown
2) Governor Moonbeam
I rest my case.
Does Texas need to hunt down illegals and liberals? Arizona?
How about Georgia? When you had a severe drought 2 years ago, did you hunt down illegals and liberals?
Yep. Something has to give. The Narrative has run up against the rock of cold, hard fact.
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