California Drought Update
by Patrick Ruckert
June 25, 2015
http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org
https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDroughtUpdate
That is the title of the LaRouche PAC analysis of the Pope’s new Encyclical on the environment and global warming. The first paragraph of the article reads:
“Anyone who reads the encyclical written by British Knight-Commander John Schellnhuber for issuance by Pope Francis, cannot escape that it is an attempt to destroy mankind–that sinful and violent race made from the mere soil of the creator ‘Mother Earth.'”
Schellnhuber is probably the world’s leading “expert” in promoting the lie of man-caused global warming, and his solution of population reduction.
You can read the entire article here:
larouchepac.com/20150622/theres-man-made-global-warming-hell-what-nations-will-agree-go-there
Something Is About To Break!
I began the report last week with this:
“The farmers of the Central Valley of California are being “waterboarded,” as week by week, more and more of them are being cut off from their water supplies by the appropriately named “Water Board.”
The shocker to farmers this week was the announcement by the Water Board on June 12, that senior water rights holders would be cut off.
“As reported by Maven News on June 12, ‘the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) announced today that there is insufficient water available for senior water right holders with a priority date of 1903 or later in the San Joaquin and Sacramento watersheds and the Delta.’ The order affects 276 pre-1914 appropriative water rights holders.” Those with water rights older than 1903 are not affected, yet. The Water Board, in its statement, warned that more cuts are coming.”
As in any physical system, one can run it to its limits and then it breaks, the California Water Management System is about ready to break. At some point soon, somewhere in that remarkable and productive system that provides water to 38 million people, something is going to break. And then, the truth of the results of the criminal policies of the last 40 years will be in our faces. The headline in the Sacramento Bee on June 25, captures the moment: “State water system stretched to limit, officials say.” And about to break, they might have added.
On the heels of the June 12 order to senior water rights holders to immediately cease pumping from rivers and streams, on June 17, it was announced by the Water Board and the Bureau of Reclamation that water releases from Lake Shasta will immediately be reduced by 20 percent to keep water temperatures in the lake cool enough to protect threatened Salmon, but by doing so, the already planted crops of thousands of more farmers are threatened.
But, this is only the beginning of an unraveling of the intricate, interconnected water management system of the entire state. As of this moment, three of the four major elements of the California Water Management System are delivering little or no water for the first time since the system was completed in 1972. The Central Valley Project, the California Water Project and the Los Angeles Aqueduct are all effectively shut down. Only the Colorado River Aqueduct and the Imperial Valley system, which get their water from the Colorado River, are functioning at this time.
The major focus of this report shall be the Sacramento River system and the Central Valley.
As Kate Campbell in Ag Alert on June 24, put it: “A water temperature miscalculation at Shasta Dam could send water transfer agreements worth millions of dollars toppling like dominoes. She goes on to then quote David Murillo, the regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation, “Changes in Shasta operations will have a system-wide effect on Central Valley Project and State Water Project operations and water supplies.”
How all this works is complicated, but just for starters, follow this: To replace the Shasta Lake releases, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has now sharply increased flows out of Folsom Lake to both protect other fish and to ensure enough fresh water flow into the Delta to keep salinity levels at their proper level. But, Folsom is already at the lowest level for this time of year that it has been in decades. The lake now contains 150,000 acre-feet (about 15 percent of capacity), and the intake valves that draw water from the lake may not work if levels fall to 80,000 or 90,000 acre-feet. One official stated that the intake values may not even work at the 120,000 acre-foot level, since it has never been tested at that level. What could be threatened here is the primary water source for several Sacramento suburbs, in addition to agricultural interests.
Further up the Sacramento Valley, as reported in the Sacramento Bee article of June 24, cited above, is Lake Oroville, which is also being drawn down to help replace the Shasta Lake water:
“Lake Oroville, the main reservoir of the State Water Project, is on track to be reduced to 900,000 acre-feet this summer. ‘That meets historical low points for Oroville,’ said John Leahigh of the state Department of Water Resources, which operates the reservoir.
“Much below 900,000 acre-feet, it becomes harder to operate the lake, he said. A state-run hydropower plant at Oroville will lose some of its generating capacity, he said. In addition, state officials are worried about having less water available to ‘carry over’ to next year.”
All this threatens thousands of farmers, all who have already spent millions in planting this year’s crops, which in the ground and harvested are worth billions. As one farmer said, “I can’t unplant my crops.”
Farmwater.org reported on June 24, under the title: “State Water Resources Control Board could cost California’s agricultural economy $4.5 billion,” that the water the Bureau of Reclamation is releasing into the Delta is water that farmers had “loaned” to the State Water Resources Board to protect Salmon, and now that water, which farmers had already paid for, is not only not being repaid now, when farmers need it, but is in fact being cut off completely by the actions of the Bureau of Reclamation reported above.
Farmwater.org concludes: “Water agencies in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys provided estimates to Reclamation indicating the total cost of lost water and farm production if the water board does not approve the payback provision would be in the range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion and an additional 485,000 acres of farmland fallowing.”
The damage already is approaching those figures. Already this year farmers have fallowed near 700,000 acres of farmland, and 44 percent of the states 9.6 million acres of irrigated farmland will be receiving no surface water this year. It will get worse, as the state Water Resources Control Board has repeatedly stated that they will be issuing cut-off notices every week.
An Emergency Means You Do Not Have to Follow the Law, or Do You?
Governor Brown and his Brownshirts are becoming serial law breakers, it appears. Remember a few weeks ago farmers sued Brown under the RICO statutes for illegally colluding with the oil companies in allowing them to dump fracking waste water into the aquifers. And, as I reported last week, Attorney General Kamala Harris asked the the state’s Supreme Court to strictly limit a lower court’s ruling that local water rates designed to encourage conservation are unconstitutional.
Now we have Harris submitting a statement to the courts in which those water districts that were cut-off on June 12 (the senior water rights holders) have sued. Harris’s statement was that the action by the State Water Board was illegal, but districts and farmers should obey the order anyway, or somehow the Water Board will still get you. Court House News Service reported on June 25:
“The California Attorney General’s office backtracked Tuesday, surprising senior water rights holders by saying in court that the curtailment notices they received were merely advisory and not compulsory.
“The turnaround happened in San Joaquin County Superior Court during a hearing in Banta Carbona Irrigation District’s challenge of curtailment notices the State Water Resources Control Board issued to 114 senior rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region on June 12.
“In court documents rebuffing the lawsuit brought by Banta Carbona, state officials seemed to change their stance by characterizing the curtailment notices as ‘courtesy notices’ that were ‘advisory’ only.
“Water managers said that hardly seemed to be the case.
“South San Joaquin Irrigation District General Manager Jeff Shields said the notices told rights holders they had seven days to sign a compliance statement under penalty of perjury.
“‘That doesn’t sound like a general courtesy notice. That sounds like an order,’ he told Courthouse News.”
One of the districts suing the state is Oakdale Irrigation, “which has 2,900 agricultural accounts in its 65,000 acres. South San Joaquin Irrigation serves drinking water to 200,000 people and irrigation water to 50,000 acres,” reported Courthouse News.
So, the state now argues the order (now called the notice) of June 12, did not create any penalty or fine for continued diversion of water. But on June 12 and in subsequent interviews with the media, Water Board officials said the exact opposite.
In response, and even before this statement from the Attorney General, a de facto revolt by both individual farmers and water districts was underway. Some farmers, I guess, refuse to be “Water Boarded.”
Under the title, “Some water agencies in California consider defying state cuts,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported that, “A handful of Central Valley water agencies that have been warned to stop pumping water from rivers to farms, in light of the drought, say they’re considering running their pumps anyway.”
From the article:
“Critics say ordering curtailments on water rights holders before permitting began in 1914 is illegal. Orders to stop pumping water must come from the courts, many say, and the orders can only come if a person with a more senior water right challenges a draw from a person with a more junior right. Such orders also would require due process, they say, meaning the directive could be contested before a judge before it takes effect.”
Yet the state still wants the order enforced and threatens:
“Water board attorney David Rose told The Chronicle that the notices to stop diverting water were indeed ‘informative’ and don’t carry fines, but that the state could — and would — enforce unauthorized water draws with penalties under its broader mandate to protect diminishing water supplies.”
Still, there is massive defiance. As reported by the Manteca Bulletin on June 25, “The South San Joaquin Irrigation District is not going to sign documents that say they will comply with the curtailment order issued to pre-1914 water right holders nearly two weeks ago by the state Department of Water Resources.”
And, as reported by AP and The Business Journal, under the title, “What’s next for California’s historic water cuts in drought,” on June 23:
“Most California farmers, water districts and others affected by the broadest water cutbacks for century-old water rights did not respond to state regulators. It’s the latest challenge for the State Water Resources Control Board in reducing water consumption during California’s fourth year of drought as rivers and streams run too dry to meet demand.
“The water board has already told thousands with more recent claims to water in California’s agricultural heartland to stop pumping from rivers and streams. It’s received a tepid response from them, too. Only about a third in the San Joaquin, Sacramento and delta watersheds have confirmed that they are obeying the order.”
International Conference of the Schiller Institute: Rebuilding the World in the BRICS Era
Here is the link to the presentation at this conference by Benjamin Deniston: “Water, an unlimited resource provided we understand where it comes from:”
Benjamin Deniston – Water, an unlimited resource provided we understand where it comes from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fiPj2CHccU
Remember East Porterville?
And, as you do, remember what Governor Jerry Brown said about the drought and water supplies– This is the new normal. Get used to it.
The intention of Governor Brownshirt to kill off the people of California is no better expressed than in the town of East Porterville. In the Central Valley, east of Fresno, East Porterville is probably the hardest hit community in the state by the drought and the criminal misconduct by Gerry Brown’s brownshirt battalions of the State Water Board, and the criminal indifference of the entire State Assembly.
One year ago East Porterville made international headlines as the 300 wells that supply all of the town’s water dried up. Later in the year East Porterville was in the news again as community showers were set up in a church parking lot. The 700 residents and 3,000 people of this community today continue to depend upon the county delivering water to large tanks that now dot the town’s landscape. Yet, even that can be, and has been, interrupted frequently.
Some homes have been without running water for 18 months or more, yet neither the state nor the county plan to any time soon restore running water to the community. The county, funded by the state, is planning on drilling a new well in the town of Porterville, of which East Porterville is a suburb, with the intent of having more water to fill the tanks in East Porterville. Officials estimate that extending the city’s water system to the community, if it is decided to do so, could take as long as four years.
That is what I mean by “criminal.”
Now, as reported by the Fresno Bee on June 20, the health consequences for these people are clearly manifested. The article by Andrea Castillo, “Drought disaster in East Porterville turns to budding health crisis,” reports on how “…residents and experts say not having running water and breathing increasingly dusty air is worsening their pre-existing health issues and contributing to the development of new ones.”
To quote from the article:
“The analysis from the California Environmental Protection Agency shows the town’s poverty level is among the highest 10% in the state. In education, the community ranks worse than 91% of the state.
Poverty and education are among more than 20 factors, including air pollution and groundwater problems, that the state analyzed to arrive at rankings reflecting heightened health risks. East Porterville has more health stress than three-quarters of California.
“This community and others nearby are plagued by drinking water high in nitrates, a contaminant that comes from septic systems, fertilizers, dairies and decomposing vegetation. Nitrate contamination is linked to dizziness, upset stomachs, lung infections, diabetes, the potentially fatal blue-baby syndrome and cancer.
“Many of those suffering from health problems in East Porterville have little refuge. In 2013, nearly 30% of residents were uninsured….
“The drought is starting a domino effect that can link together numerous health-related issues: pre-existing conditions, worsening air, access to potable water, hygiene and anxiety among them.”
As we have reported again and again, the water can be made available by desalination and even by ionizing the atmosphere creating more cloud formation and precipitation, but these solutions are ruled out by Brown. And communities like East Porterville could be relieved from their misery by a determined mobilization of what ever is required to get water flowing to their taps.
The Brownshirts Are Here, The Brownshirts Are Here!
Finally, Brownshirt behavior is becoming epidemic as people are turned against each other, just as Jerry would like them to do, taking the flak for this disaster off his shoulders. The Sacramento Bee reported on June 21, that “As the drought deepens, Sacramento-area residents haven’t exactly been shy about turning in their water-profligate neighbors.” The article continues with this: “’People have to realize that there is some sort of Big Brother or Big Neighbor,’ said Sacramento public relations executive Doug Elmets.”
