From the Aquafornia blog (now affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, and when did that happen?) comes comes commentary from Dan Bacher, who suggests the reason Northern California’s reservoirs are at historic lows (when the drought is only the 9th worst two-year period in the last 88) is because too much water was sent south.
From Bacher’s compelling narrative:
Unfortunately, Snow failed to mention that the reason for the low carryover storage was because Shasta, Oroville, Folsom and other northern California reservoirs have been drained to alarmingly low water levels by the state and federal governments to send subsidized water to drainage impaired land in the Westlands Water District and to fill the Kern Water Bank, the Semi-Tropic Water Bank and reservoirs in Southern California.
Today’s articles in the S.F. Chronicle, Sacramento Bee and other newspapers about Snow’s announcement failed to mention the real reasons behind the alleged “drought.†Fortunately, Tom Stienstra, S.F. Chronicle outdoor columnist and author, wrote a superb piece, “Drought, or water heist?,†in the Chronicle on October 26, exposing this fraud by the Schwarzenegger administration. “This isn’t a drought. This is a created shortage,†Stienstra emphasized.
Stienstra cites Department of Water Resources data stating that the past two years are only the ninth driest two-year period in the past 88 years, and that California routinely experiences such periods once every 10 years.
“What happened last year is that water managers were betting on a wet spring,†said Stienstra. “When it didn’t happen, many lakes were drained down to nothing in order to send water to L.A. and farmers.â€
“True droughts are measured by soil moisture, and in some cases, water levels at wilderness lakes. In a true drought, soil moisture is so low that plants go into artificial hibernation to protect themselves, as in 1992, and that has not happened. Up in the high country, most wilderness lakes – outside the reach of water-grabbers – are full,†he said.
If you missed the reference, I’ll point out that the “drainage impaired land in the Westlands Water District” is the same Westlands District that bought McCloud’s Private Bolle Boka club – a clear attempt to pave the way for the raising of Shasta Dam to a much higher level than is publicly discussed.
Later in the article, Bacher cites record levels of water extraction from the Delta and an utter lack of conservation as main contributors to the “drought” – which he considers largely manmade.
“The DWR didn’t call for water conservation this year – so the dry year situation wasn’t taken seriously,†said McIntyre. “This year we’re going into a potentially dry year without a buffer in the reservoirs, so the state and federal governments have managed themselves into a manmade drought.â€
The state and federal governments in recent years have pumped record amounts of water out of the California Delta. Some of the largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre-feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increased to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The problem with California water supply won’t be addressed by building a peripheral canal or more dams, but by practicing better water management and increased water conservation, McIntyre contends. “This is more a failure of water policy and management than it is of infrastructure,†she said. “We will have a water crisis every year unless we find a way to decrease demand.â€
Read the rest of the piece here.
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All of it is manufactured? I don’t think so. Aweful dry around here. Have heard of springs drying up on some of the valley ranches that have never run dry before. No offense, but I don’t hold much value in what Tom Stienstra has to say. I remember the last time it was really dry and he reported that the entire Shasta River was dry and thousands of young steelhead had been killed. I went down to the river and sure enough…there was still normal flows in it below the dam. Above was dry, but not below, and I don’t think there’s too many steelhead above Lake Shastina.
Gene Bach(Quote)
Tom, this is an excellent post.
Farmers need to conserve water as much as possible, and consider shifting to crops that require less water.
And Southern California needs to forego the pools, jacuzzis, and the green lawns. Those folks live in a desert and they need to act accordingly.
John Soares(Quote)
Gene: I don’t think Bacher’s contending that “all” of it is manufactured. He’s suggesting the state and water agencies have done almost nothing to promote conservation of water supplies (note that most conservation programs in the south were “voluntary” and had little real effect) while record amounts of water were being pumped from the Delta.
Meanwhile, we’re talking about two dry years, but hardly the driest on record, and suggesting the month-early timing of the announcement and the artificial severity of it might be a campaign isn’t exactly off the hook.
As for Stienstra, I don’t what specific incident you’re referring to so I can’t comment. I’m not necessarily in love with the guy and it’s important to note he’s not the only person quoted in Bacher’s article.
John: Yes, this sums a lot of my frustration; I don’t necessarily want to cast this in a south vs north thing, but the south gets a lot of subsidized water at the expense of fisheries, and some real conservation measures don’t seem like too much to ask.
Tom Chandler(Quote)