California has a bloody history of struggle over water. John Walton wrote the definitive work (Western Times and Water Wars, 1992) on how corruption, violence and propaganda by big corporations and land barons robbed small farmers of water rights and resulted in the non-functional mess we have today. Kevin Starr's series of books, including Inventing the Dream (1985) gives considerable breadth to the cultural and political foundations of the struggle.
S.F. Chronicle reporter, Kelly Zito's November 2010 article concerning
the power play of the Westland's Disrict Board over attempts to solve
the problems of water distribution in California, should be compared
with the article in 2001 by Eric Brazil (SF Chronicle 29 Jan) and another on
from 15 August 1976. Brazil's article showed that the district is
simply not functional and is just living off taxpayer funds. In 1976
Will Hearst and Lynn Ludlow (in the SF Examiner)wrote on then Governor
Jerry Brown's proposal to sell District land for family farms.
The District was scandal plagued even then when it was only 74 years old
and had been originally organized to provide for family farms only.
The Reagan administration belatedly legalized the corporate ownership
we now see and the much larger size of holdings than the original
legislation allowed (http://en.wikipedia.org/...). The District's waste water has been increasingly poisoned with heavy metals and chemicals from farming pesticides and fertilizer since its drain to the south was never finished and a lower shunt was closed afterpollution from the District was found to be adversely affecting birds.
Other proposals to take the land out of production have been made in recent years by both the Clinton and Bush administrations by offering the landowners huge federal bailouts. THe owners are corporate entities or large investors who have for more than 50 years received free water or highly subsidized water and price support cash for crops (http://www.progress.org/...). Westlands farmers have also received credits when the project was begin and owed over $1billion which they have failed to pay off and still owe over 300 million (http://www.cacoastkeeper.org/...).
Our present Governor Jerry Brown should initiate condemnation of
the District with the help of the Obama administration for failure to pay and for illegal use of the water contracts and turn the land over either to the University of California
for study to deal with the contamination or to wildlife and
environmental organizations to try and manage the situation as can best
be arranged. At present it is only a rich man's welfare scheme.