San Joaquin Water

Have any of you all been reading about or seen the special on the government using the 1978 Endangered Species Act to shut off the water to the San Joaquin Valley.

With record unemployment (which is fixing to get worse if they pass the Cap & Trade legislation) we can now look to higher food prices and a greater dependence on foreign food to compliment our dependence on foreigh oil.

I am totally perplexed. Is there no common sense left in the public sector?

The answer is "NO". There is no common sense.

i think should be is there no common sense in washington?
princess nancy and and one of obammys top aide say there is no problem.

Hannity covered it thoroughly last week. Even did a benefit appearance out there. Funny how we need healthcare because 30 million need it, yet this water shutoff affects 30 million livelyhoods. Told ya so.

I saw the special that Shawn Hannity did,I also saw it mentioned on his show a couple weeks ago,what I don't understand is,if you go to the NOAA website,they are the government office that is proposing that the Pacific Smelt be put on the endangered species list.According to the NOAA website,as of March 9 of this year was when they started this study and the final action on the proposal could come in a year,so why did they shut the water off already if they haven't even decided if the Smelt were endangered,there really seems to be something else going on here.

there is only one common sense unfortunatly it is at the ballot box you either vote for what is good for the country or your respective party we don"t stand a chance... al

oh they know EXACTLY what they are doing!!!!

I thought Hannity or somebody said Federal
Government wants a lot of this land. I
think they want to make a big solar electric
farm. It would not be right to kick multigeneration farmers off their land.

No, there is no sense, common or otherwise, in our government anymore.

That said, I've been through the California central valley many times and am always awed by the scale of farming out there. That said, I've never been able to appreciate it much. I can't look at that dry, arid dessert and not wonder how much water they are stealing out of the Colorado to make it happen. Doesn't seem right.

It's an interesting paradox to me. You have California chucked full of Greenie tree huggers and holier-than-thou environmentalists living out there, and they irrigate EVERYTHING, (even all along their interstates!!), to keep greenery growing. And yet, they lecture to us about being more environmentally friendly?? That's the biggest bunch of hipocracy I've ever seen.

So, let's review. California won't deal with their illigal immigrant problem which is breaking their legal, penal, medical systems; they live in big cities that create tons of smog; they irrigate the dessert to grow food we grow naturally out here, they are beyond broke and will be coming to us to bail them out, but we out here in "flyover" country are the backwards unenlightened ones? Only out there in FruitLoop land does that make any sense.

My plan? Throw California out of the Union. And while you're at it, send New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota along with them.

Looks like the farmers are going to need to go take the water.They did that out there somewhere else in California or Washington by surrounding the law enforcement,who didnt want to be there,with lots of farmers and people that stood with the farmers,and took the water.Farmers have rights to water,fish or not.Any judge that sends a decision like that should be thrown off the bench from now on.Judges bypassing the law probably because they are paid to do it seems like what is causing this stuff.

The entire centeral valley water project is a massive redistribution of wealth scheme. Federal and state taxpayers have been getting chiseled on that deal for years. All the dams, canals, pipelines, pumping stations are expensive. The water has been getting sold to a handful of farmers at far, far, far below the cost of supplying it. Pennies of the dollar really. Not to mention that it has destroyed the excellent commercial fishing we used to have. So all you socialists that believe in redistriubitive monitary policy and don't care about taxpayers may shed tears over the drying up of the Cadillic Desert, but save those farmers paying market rate for water I am fine with it.

We have been subsidizing these guys for generations. They are growing muck crops in the desert, all with federal subsidies. When does this bailout end?

I read some stuff on the colorado river a few years ago. We suck all the water out of the colorado and none is left for mexico. That amazes me , but what really got me is where the water goes. If i remember right a very high number say 70 to 90 percent goes for irrigation of crops. I was shocked to read that, i thought that it went to all the big California towns and such so they can flush their toilets, but no. Most goes for irrigation. WOW

Farmer

Trucker, what in your mind gives the farmers the "RIGHT" to the water? Nothing in law supports that idea. All you Neocons say that government should be run like a business. So be it. Why should it be that the highest bidder (probably the LA Dept of Power and Water)dosen't get the water. The BLM and CA Dept of Water Resources should sell the water to to who ever wants to pay the most for it. The current status is welfare for the rich.

Red, would you like me to start on how much you have wrong and how foolish your ideas are ? One for free. None of the Colorado River water, not one drop, goes into the centeral valley in CA. The Colorado goes into the Inland Empire , the Imperial Valley , Los Vegas and water projects in AZ and CO. Not one drop is "stolen" by CA or anyone else, although Mexico and it's people may think differently.

That idea is absurd. The Federal Govt. owns about 1/3rd of the land in this state now. They have plenty of room for solar panels if that is what they want to do. I wish they (the feds) would step up to the plate and fight their own forest fires (as well as provide police services on the land they own, they don't pay property taxes)so us CA taxpayers don't keep getting get stuck with the bill.

Read [i:654c4848f0]Cadillac Desert[/i:654c4848f0] by Marc Reisner. The history of water management in the US and particularly in California is a story of politics at its worst. Like Scott says, the agricultural water projects in CA benefit politically well-connected agricultural interests at the expense of the taxpayers and the environment.

There is simply not enough water in the west to satisfy all the agricultural demands. Unless we can use this scarce commodity a lot more efficiently that we have in the past, you're going to see a second Dust Bowl.

Mark, thanks for covering my back. Everyone seems to think this has something to do with family farms and it simply not so. The guy fighting this the hardest, Beverly Hills billionair Stewart Resnick, is also known as the Water Barron of Kern County. He flys around in his fleet of private jets. He has agricultural interests range from Klamath River basin on the OR border to the Mexican border including a bunch in centeral valley, that actually gets its water from the Sacramento Delta. I don't mind people working hard and getting rich, heck, I want to be rich some day, but I object to using political influence to have the government decide who is going to get rich. This is not even about political idology, back in 2001 with a drought in the Klamath basin Mr. Resnick had VP Dick Cheney do is heavy lifting, now with the Sacramento River Delta in danger he has Sen. Diane Feinstein doing it. I can't help but notice that those that feel different about CA water policy, will not respond to me.

Gee Red, come on out and take me on, what do you have to be afraid of ? Your silence tells us much!