Patrick Porgans, founder and project coordinator of www.planetarysolutionaries.org, exposes the dichotomy between flood disaster proclamations and drought proclamations in California as 1.6 million acres of water-hungry almonds now consume four more times than the 19 million customers (1.3 million acre-feet) served by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California.
Members of the California Legislature have raised concerns about these conflicting dichotomies, prompting an investigation by the State Auditor’s office of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). Below is the complete press release from Porgans.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: For more information, contact Patrick Porgans (916) 833-8734
California officials claim we are in the grip of a major drought, as the Governor issues a flood disaster proclamation requesting presidential aid, while he claims the State is running out of water. Critics are raising questions, “is it because California has gone nuts?”
In every major drought, since the turn of the 21st Century, tens-of-thousands of acres of almonds were planted. The current total of 1.6 million acres consumes almost four times more water than the 19 million customers (1.3 million acre-feet) served by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of southern California.
While 90% of Californians were under a flood emergency warning, “Gov. Gavin Newsom threatens mandatory water cuts if Californians don't use less water.” Newsom repeated this threat during the January floods.
Legislative members raised concerns about these conflicting dichotomies, prompting an investigation by the State Auditor’s office of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).
They are the two entities entrusted to supply flood protection and to assure the public of a safe sustainable supply of drinking water. Assemblyman Adam Gray, a member of the California Legislative Joint Audit Committee, launched the Auditor’s investigation. Gray said:
“California’s water management strategies are outdated, heavily flawed, increasingly dangerous to the health of humans and the environment alike. As extreme drought conditions persist for longer periods and then are followed by severe and unpredictable downpours, the effect of climate change on California’s water supply has only just begun.”
The Auditor’s report is due to be available soon. The DWR Director Karla Nemeth opposed the Auditor’s investigation. DWR’s managerial actions, during earlier droughts, are the subject of the Auditor’s investigation.
During the 2012-2016 drought years, at Governor Brown’s directive the SWRCB imposed mandatory cutbacks on urban users and relaxed the Bay-Delta Estuary water quality standards. A total of 3.2 million acre-feet of water were conserved, according to the SWRCB.
Relaxation of the Bay-Delta water quality protections was the result of the SWRCB’s approval of DWR’s petition to reduce the standards. DWR officials claimed they did not have enough water in upstream storage to meet the standards. They used this same tactic during the 1976-1977 and the 1987-1992 droughts.
The Board ignored considerable evidence that DWR officials had drawn down the State Water Project’s (SWP) Oroville Reservoir to increase water exports to SWP contractors south of the Delta prior to submission of the petition.
The SWRCB approval to relax the standards led to the mortality of 95% of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon. No one was held accountable for the death of those listed ESA species, which if committed by a citizen is a federal offense.
Farmers in the Delta suffered cutbacks, forcing third-generation families out of business, because their soils were damaged and deprived of a usable supply of water that DWR and the SWRCB are legally required to provide them. Ironically, DWR purchased 90% of the 10,000-acre of Sherman Island and received a bonus. It gets to hold onto the amount of water needed to irrigate those lands to make up for its overcommitted SWP water contracts.
While urban water users pay higher rates for less water, the Bay-Delta estuary experienced an ecological collapse, while state and federal water projects absconded with the conserved water, a good portion went to supply their agricultural contractors in central and southern California, to keep the almond trees alive.
The SWRCB did not impose mandatory cutbacks on agriculture, which consumes 85% of the State’s annual applied water supply and only contributes 2.8 percent of the State’s $2.87 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Currently, California has the fifth largest GDP on the planet.
Presently, there are 1.6 million acres of almonds planted, and 80% of the almonds are exported. It requires 1.1 gallons of water to produce one almond. The State’s so-called water shortage is due to the fact it is exporting the public’s water and energy, at the expense and to the demise of urban users and small farmers.
Each time the Governor declares a disaster, he appeals to the federal government for emergency funding to be bailed out and then approves expenditure of billions of dollars funded from General Obligation (GO) bonds for flood and drought relief.
Those funds are grants, free money, for applicants, such as Donald Bren, who owns Irvine Ranches 90,000 acres in Orange County, including 40,000 which are farmed. In earlier droughts DWR set up meetings at the Irvine Duck Club, aiding applicants to get this money.
Repayment of the GO bonds come from the State’s General Fund, which are paid for by taxes on all Californians and are backed by the full-faith and credit of the State. Each dollar borrowed requires an added dollar in interest payments. This free money is drowning Californians in a sea of rising debt, while officials cry wolf about the severity of the drought.
California has a mandate to put the waters of the State to the highest and best use, which includes agriculture. However, critics argue it should not be to the detriment of the public’s water supply. It raises the question should the state cut off its nuts and cease allowing the exportation of the public’s water to satisfy the unquenchable thirst of billionaire Agri-conglomerate factory farmers, like the Resnick family, who own 26.5 square miles of almonds, according to a CBS 60 Minute interview.
Like other billionaires, they benefit directly from the issuance of billions of dollars of General Obligation bonds, where the public pays them for water projects they own and reap further profits by selling the public back its own water, while receiving windfall profits of “free” bailout money!
Climate change dictates that the outdated, debt-ridden water policies that Assemblyman Gray raised are not only dangerous, but they are also a threat to our way of life and national security.
If DWR and the SWRCB are not compelled to resolve their inherent conflicts of interest, California will continue to be bogged down in a quagmire of a government-induced merry-go-round, until it meets its “Waterloo.”
Critics claim that the public can put an end to this orchestrated cabal, by simply stopping voting for the issuance of new GO bonds until they cut off thousands of acres of nuts. #
This is the first of a series of articles: Next, 1: How government-induced crises amass fortunes at the public’s misfortune. 2: Almond glut gets unsuspecting public to foster urban sprawl by billionaire property owners. 3: GO bond phenomenon. 4: How to get rich selling the public back its own water.
About the author: Just Google or EDGE for Patrick Porgans Water
