Good info...
I love our pragmatism, Bob. You do have common sense. Perhaps this pipe dream will be built and policies that are tenable to fish and wildlife will be observed. But after reading in so many areas that export folks believe water going under the G. Gate to be a waste of resources, I can only assume they have no clue about anadromous fish, or simply don't care. Hey, if i was that thirsty I probably wouldn't care either! I am a small farmer in Placer County and I know how precious water is, but I don't ask for more every year-- in fact they are going to make us use far less in the future. Our local water agency has read the fine print in SB68 and believes it is likely that Nor-Cal will endure 20% conservation reductions to our supply, while So-Cal and larger coastal communites will only have to conserve 5%. I will post this story next.
As far as stripers causing damage to the delta system, I'm going to have to lament record runs of steelhead and salmon occuring numerous times since striped bass were introduced in 1879, as well as a consistently productive commercial salmon fishing industry.... until a time of record exports... when striped bass indexes were at their lowest. Still are.
In regards to de-sal, I toured the Mulholland Plant in Santa Barbara with a senior engineer. One of two portable trucked-in plants, it was mothballed, as the drought was over by a year or so. The engineer admitted that CWP canal water was slightly cheaper than de-sal and that technology was closing in rappidly enough that it would be slightly cheaper to desalinate in a couple of years.
I say de-salinate all you can. Put the salt under a mountain somewhere. I say set up the nuke plants in teh safest areas of the desert to supply this energy for de-sal, as well as to plug in electric cars so we can clean our air. Like the Newlands Project in Nevada, the farms there were robbing the life from Pyramid Lake. In the end, the government bought out the unproductive lands, leaving the local farm industries lean and mean. The lake is back and is a huge draw for visitors. It is again a national destination. This would not have happened if someone didn't have balls.
I guess most anyone from northern CA is supicious of this campaign-- unless they're Bob the Lawyer/Lobbyist!! I just want my kid to have something else besides ipods and u-tube to look forward to. Currently, my10-year old kid loves salmon and striped bass fishing (Ben's up against Westlands, Paramount Farms, and Metropolitan water to name a few).
By the way, the nut exports are up so much that hundres of thousands more trees are slated for planting this year... think how much water they'll need when they mature!? This is when policies are re-interpreted.
When all else fails, put down the pole and swim with the dog.
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