by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20220811-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
The U.S. Drought Monitor this week, especially for California, shows a sharp increase in the intensity of the drought. “Exceptional Drought” increased in the state from 12% of the state to 16%. I have included the California maps for this week and last week, to demonstrate that expansion.
Otherwise, we have two foci to this week’s report. First, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced and released a new policy to address the ongoing drought in the state. As usual with this governor, though the policy is take effect over the next 18 years, the caveats in the document ensure that not only will the already inadequate policy proposal fail to accomplish the stated goals, but provides a butt-covering narrative for him as he continues to run for President in 2024, while at the same time denying that is his intention.
I provide a Los Angeles Times article on the policy, which includes a link to the 16-page report from the governor. I also include a few highlights from the report, which, I think, demonstrate the argument I made in the above paragraph.
The second focus of this week’s report is to highlight the deadline on Monday, August 15 that the seven states of the Colorado River system must meet. They must present a plan that guarantees that they will reduce the amount of water they withdraw from the river by two to four million acre feet annually beginning in 2023. Either they present a workable such plan or the Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Colorado River system, will step in and impose its plan. Some of the states have made public the plans to accomplish that mandate, with a little more detail this week than last week. But, still, two million acre feet, not to speak of four million, is not to be accomplished by what so far has been presented.
Of note for California, is that about 25 percent of the water used in the Southern half of the state comes from the Colorado River. And of that, about 80 percent is used by agriculture.
The Feature this week is the commentary by my associate Barbara Boyd of LaRouche PAC on the FBI raid on President Trump’s home on Monday: “August 8, 2022 at Mar-a-Lago — Herald of the New American Revolution.”
