Got a phone call today from a gal who has a cattle ranch on Bradford Island. Rumour has it that they want to dam False River and at the next Reclamation District meeting, USBR will be asking for an encroachment permit. This crap was pretty well discussed a few years back and got canned as you can see here Anticipated Project Schedule: The Franks Tract Project has been delayed.
Ha! It's back! On Steroids. Just found this on the Sacramento Bee California to dam Delta sloughs if drought persists
Here is what pisses me off about all of this. Drought is not a new condition in California. It's damn near normal. Instead of pushing for new storage and conservation and reclamation of water - we get a sustained push for a boondoggle of a tunnel plan to shunt the Sacramento River into tunnels to send water to the southern San Joaquin Valley growers. It's not LA pools folks - it never was. It's Stewart Resnick and his damn POM Pomagranates and Pistachios that want the water.
It's big money pitting farmer against farmer and the fish are losing. In severe drought plan, California salmon may be moved by truck
The CA Delta has some of the most prime farmland in the world. The Southern SJ Valley some of the worst. But long ago, it was determined that we needed to irrigate that land and here we are. The CA Delta gets drained to send them irrigation water and what we get back in return is selenium and fertilizer polluted waste water. But that water they have gotten has made them billions of dollars and they are using those dollars to attempt to circumvent CA water rights and make sure THEY get all the water there is to be had.
That is why we in the CA Delta are fighting the tunnels. Once that pure Sacramento River water goes underground into those tunnels, we can't get it back. And once again, I'm assaulted by a Stephen Colbert commercial for Stuart Resnicks fucking pistachios!
And then there is the issue of fracking. Once that water goes underground headed south, what will stop the Kern County Water Bank or Westlands (deathstar) Water District from selling that water to frackers? Not much. As I watched on AL-Jazeera this past weekend - there is big money to be made in privatizing water.
Water. To. The. Highest. Bidder. IIRC - the human body is 98% water. Shouldn't water be a public trust? A human right? We already have communities in the Southern SJ Valley who's groundwater is so polluted they can't drink it. While pure CA Delta water is channeled to Stewart Resnicks trees.
Please join us in Sacramento next Saturday. Don't Frack California
We here in the CA Delta are not opposed to helping out in this situation. But I do believe that we are being asked to bear the brunt of the pain. Please check this out - Bay Delta Live Salinity You need to load the data to view. Farmers on the Sacramento River towards Rio Vista cannot irrigate at all. Same thing here on Sherman Island. But nobody on Sherman Island irrigates because DWR bought up most of the water rights in 1981 and North Delta Water Agency signed off it on with their contract with the state. Thankfully, it's a really good contract which is why Melinda Terry has a seat at the table at the BDCP.