On 5/24/2015 12:14 PM, Cheri wrote:
>
> "Cabrito del Bosque" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On 5/24/2015 10:08 AM, Ophelia wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> "Paul M. Cook" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> "Ophelia" > wrote in message
>>>> ...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Paul M. Cook" > wrote in message
>>>>> ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Ophelia" > wrote in message
>>>>>> ...
>>>>>>> I have noticed several people here mention California. We have had
>>>>>>> a lot
>>>>>>> of stuff on tv about the lack of water there. We were shown the
>>>>>>> huge
>>>>>>> reservoirs with very little water in them. They were showing how
>>>>>>> people
>>>>>>> with lush grass and full swimming pools were being demonised.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is anyone here affected? It sounds very frightening!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Everyone in CA is affected. And since CA grows half the country's
>>>>>> food,
>>>>>> half the country is affected as well. My town is ordering a 35%
>>>>>> cutback
>>>>>> on water use with fines for offenders. NASA says this is the last
>>>>>> year we
>>>>>> will have water in the reservoirs. So next year we should be in full
>>>>>> anarchy mode I expect. Fox News blames it on illegal immigrants.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So if there will be no water in the reservoirs, where will your water
>>>>> come from?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Nowhere. That's the problem and that is where we are headed. It
>>>> could get very ugly.
>>>
>>> Are there many posters here from California? I haven't heard anyone
>>> speaking about it. Are you not all very worried?
>>>
>>>
>> I suspect many are worried enough to be stunned to silence.
>
> Especially since they were releasing all tha water from dams a couple of
> years ago. Idiots.
>
> Cheri
>
>
The Smelt caper?

http://spectator.org/articles/40982/...middle-drought

ANYONE DOUBTING THAT OUR nation's environmental and economic policies
can get seriously out of whack from time to time need only look to the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Located in California's Central
Valley, between the state's capital city and Stockton, it is where the
American, Mokelumne, Cosumnes, and Calaveras Rivers flow into the larger
Sacramento and San Joaquin. It is also where the saddest agricultural
saga since the Depression-era Dust Bowl is now playing, as the waters
from those rivers flow beneath San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and
out to sea. As they flow unimpeded to the Pacific, those waters are also
washing out to sea the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farm workers
and agricultural business owners. It is an economic as well as human
tragedy.

Further curbs may come, on behalf of the delta smelt as well as other
species. The USFWS and the California Fish and Game Commission are
moving forward with threatened and endangered designations for Chinook
salmon, steelhead, and the longfin smelt, presaging further water
reductions for agriculture.

The result of these irrigation pump shutdowns is that hundreds of
thousands of acres of farmland are being forced out of production. Kern
County authorities estimated that 145,000 of the 850,000 acres that are
typically irrigated were idled or under-irrigated last year. The loss
was pegged at $100 million in the county alone. A study by UC-Davis
estimated San Joaquin Valley farm revenue losses to range from $482
million to $647 million. Total California agricultural economic losses
could hit $3 billion this year.

But those are just abstract financial numbers. Behind those figures are
real people, farmers and business owners and families who are losing
livelihoods and are being forced to uproot and flee. The UC-Davis study
conservatively suggested 24,000 to 32,000 Central Valley jobs were
destroyed by environmental rulings designed to protect endangered
wildlife. It further estimated job losses could approach 80,000 or more
if restrictions intensified. Communities are withering for a
government-imposed lack of water. It is little exaggeration to say that
the farmers of the most valuable farming region in the nation are facing
extinction.