California Drought Update
by Patrick Ruckert
July 9, 2015
http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org
https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDroughtUpdate
Flash
(Link to interview corrected on July 14, 2015)
Ben Deniston of the LaRouche PAC Science Team was interviewed for 7 minutes on July 9 by Tomi Lahren on the “On Point with Tomi Lahren” show, out of San Diego. The topic was the California drought, why the water crisis, and solutions. The video link is here:
The Water Boarding of Sacramento farmers gets the official okay
This week state officials gave official approval to the earlier announced plan to reduce the outflow from Shasta Lake to preserve colder water for the later salmon migration, immediately imperiling already planted crops. The Sacramento Bee reported on July 8:
“The plan will effectively deprive downstream farmers of an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 acre-feet of water during the crucial months of the growing season. Officials began curbing the volume of water coming out of Shasta in late May, and the plan became official with an order signed late Tuesday by Thomas Howard, executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board.
“‘We’re going to have some growers lose their crops,’ said Lon Martin, general manager of the San Luis Water District, a 65,000-acre district near Los Banos known for almonds, pistachios and other crops.”
Yet, while the plan goes forward there is no guarantee that the move will protect the salmon, thus potentially destroying thousands of acres of crop for nothing. Again, from the Sacramento Bee article:
“‘There’s no guarantee this year’s winter salmon run will be protected,’ said John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association.”
Obama/ Brownshirt Water Crisis At Stage of Crop Abandonment; Population Abandonment
As I have reported for the last two weeks, the entire California water management system is now at risk of collapse– if not the whole system, then at least big chunks of it. In fact, for increasing numbers of people in the state, it is already a disaster.
If you have not read those reports, I urge you to do so:
California Drought Update for June 25, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDroughtUpdate/posts/729479270495108
California Drought Update for July 2, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDroughtUpdate/posts/731999950243040
But, what does that mean? The abandonment of already planted crops, for lack of water, and the abandonment of thousands of people to a public health emergency of the collapse of hygiene and increased disease rates, for lack of water.
Already it is a disaster for thousands of farmers who have had their water cut. At least 700,000 acres of the best farm land in the world is already lying fallow this year. And 44 percent of the states 9.6 million acres of irrigated farmland will be receiving no surface water. Crops that have already been planted, worth billions, are just one step away from withering away as the Water Board announces new cuts every week. The food you eat may not be there for your dinner some night soon.
A shocking report was in the Washington Post on July 5, “California’s rural poor hit hardest as massive drought makes remaining water toxic,” by Darryl Fears. Fears writes:
“There is arsenic in the groundwater feeding their community well at St. Anthony Trailer Park, 40 miles south of Palm Springs. In ordinary times, the concentration of naturally occurring arsenic is low, and the water safe to drink. But during California’s unrelenting drought, as municipalities join farmers in sucking larger quantities of water from the ground, the concentration of arsenic is becoming more potent.
“A recent laboratory test found that water in St. Anthony’s shallow well has twice the concentration of arsenic considered safe.
“Arsenic, natural or not, can be frightening. It has been linked to various cancers of the bladder, lungs and skin when consumed in high doses. It is also known to cause birth defects and attack the nervous system.”
At the same time, the departure of farm operations out of the Central Valley, to locations abroad–Mexico, Chile, Peru, South Africa–is now quickening, after the out-flight that was already underway for years. Several producers are simply quitting. The outsourcing is mostly by mega-farms. Wall Street billionaire “farm” owners are prominent. A recent survey of members of the Western Growers association, found 27 fruit and vegetable companies (California, Arizona, Colorado) employing more than 23,500 workers outside the U.S., farming over 114,000 acres, producing 25 crops. For example, from 1990 to 2010, the U.S. shut down two-thirds of its asparagus production. Overall, 25 percent of U.S. consumption of fresh vegetables is now imported, as of 2014. (See “Some Worry as More Production Moves Outside the U.S.” June 18, 2015 by Capital Press.)
What is to be done?
First, recognize that this is not a California water crisis, but a political, cultural and economic crisis of the nation. There has been zero water infrastructure built in this state in more than 40 years– we ceased creating a future for ourselves and for future generations. After the death of President Kennedy, and the death of his policies of building nuclear-powered desalination plants and the North American Water and Power Alliance, the nation gave up the idea of progress and development and turned the nation into a speculative gambling casino with an ideology of environmentalism to match.
Second, the central issue to be put on the table is the real nature of progress; the real nature of progress for mankind. Mankind is the only species that creates his own future through the action of the creative power of his mind. It is scientific discovery, and applying that to increasingly master the universe that that future is created. By allowing that to be destroyed we are creating the conditions for our own extinction.
Third, creating new sources of water requires the recognition that processes on our planet, like the water cycle, are largely determined, not by processes on Earth, but by galactic forces like cosmic radiation which affects how water vapor behaves– whether there are clouds, where they are located, and when precipitation falls. Initial experiments in several nations of artificially ionizing the atmosphere have demonstrated initial success in increasing rainfall. An aggressive program to put such experiments into action must be carried out now.
Providing more water to this state and to all arid areas of the world depends upon unleashing the creative power of mankind to discover how to control those processes. That is the fundamental solution. That requires a new Presidency; it requires the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act to bankrupt this speculative system; and it requires a return to classical principles of culture to once again unleash the creative powers of our people.
In the meantime, an Apollo Project-style mobilization to build desalination plants over the next few years is what is required to minimize the current disaster. The Carlsbad desalination plant now being built will begin delivering 50 million gallons of water per day to San Diego later this year. That facility will have taken less than two years to build. By putting the construction of dozens of plants, from San Francisco Bay to San Diego, on a 24 hours a day/ 7 days per week schedule, in less than a year, rivers of water will flow from the sea to the land. Providing the electricity required will require another crash program to build nuclear power plants. We have accomplished such great tasks before, and we can do it again.
At the same time, recognizing and acting to end the domination of the state by the Brownshirts of the California State Water Board, whose actions of sending millions of acre-feet of water out to sea to protect fish at the expense of human needs, can immediately prevent the further destruction of food production and end the environment of virtual terror they have created.
My Job Depends On Ag, and so does yours
That is the name of a face book page, which now has more than 31,000 members, initiated by two Central Valley farmers, Erik Wilson and Steve Malanca, to demonstrate through stories, pictures and videos, the myriad of occupations that people perform that are directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture. From the farmer to the school teacher, the entire productive process of providing food to one-half of the American people and a good part of the world, is given a very human face on this site.
Not shying from controversy, members are firm in their defense of agricultural. The link is here:
Underlining the idea behind the face book page is an article in the Los Angeles Times on July 3, by Sasha Harris-Lovett, “Cities’ food supplies are eating into groundwater reserves, study finds,” which, surprise, surprise, reports that people in the cities eat the food farmers grow. The article reports on a study of falling groundwater levels. Here is the last sentence, which should be posted in every grocery store:
“‘Water use in rural areas largely serves urban areas by providing food,’ the study authors wrote.”
Crop production is falling
As reported by Capital Press on July 6:
“The drought’s continued impacts are causing field crop acreage in California to dip lower than expected this year. according to an acreage update from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
“Rice acreage in California is now expected to top out at 385,000, a steep drop from the 431,000 acres of rice harvested last year,
“• Corn acreage in the Golden State is estimated at 430,000 acres, down from 520,000 acres a year ago. Corn planted nationwide totals 88.9 million acres, down 2 percent from last year.
“• California’s 51,000 acres of cotton are down from the 56,000 acres harvested in the state last year.
“• Growers have planted 35,000 acres of sunflower in California this year, down from 44,000 acres last year.”
In addition, the almond production forecast for this year is 4 percent below last year’s production.
Electricity Production
California’s hydropower generation of electricity looks to fall even further than last years, which was about one-third of that produced in the wet year of 2011, and about one-half of an average year’s production. Yet, with not only the requirement for a massive increase in electricity production to run desalination plants, Governor Brown is accelerating the replacement of hydro-carbon produced electicity by more solar and wind power, which cannot meet the real needs of a developing scientific and industrial economy.
South of the border
Mexico, right next door to California, has been experiencing the same drought, and also confronts a growing water crisis. Baja California farmers, especially, are as worried as their counterparts north of the border. Like the Imperial Valley, Baja California depends upon the Colorado River to water their fields. The continuous threat of cuts to the allocation from the river has moved the Mexican government and state governments to act.
An article in the Los Angeles Times on July 7, “Baja California farmers confront prospect of water shortage,” states:
“With growing urgency, water managers are planning an array of measures aimed at stretching Baja California’s existing supply and creating new sources, including desalination plants, new wells and reservoirs, canal lining projects and improved irrigation techniques.”
The building of desalination plants in Mexico is, in fact, underway. As reported by the San Diego Union-Leader on July 4, “Baja California turns to desalination,” by Sandra Dibble, reports:
“Set to launch operations in 2017, the state’s first utility-scale ocean desalination plant is under construction in Ensenada, where residents have been subject to water rationing. The $48 million plant, a reverse-osmosis facility, would supply 5.7 million gallons daily to residents of the port city, part of a sprawling Baja California municipality that includes the San Quintin export-oriented agricultural region and the wine-producing Valle de Guadalupe.
“Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid last month announced plans for a second desalination plant down the coast in San Quintin, similar in scale and size to the Ensenada plant, a project aimed at increasing the water supply to residents of several farming communities. The region’s growers have been operating small privately operated desalination plants for years to treat brackish well water; Baja California’s agriculture’s secretariat counts 52 existing plants in the area.
“Longer term, the state is working with the private sector to pursue a third seawater desalination plant in Rosarito Beach. Its envisioned capacity is up to 100 million gallons daily — twice the size of a desalination plant being built in Carlsbad — and plans include the possibility that some of that water could be sent across the border to U.S. users.”
