Rich Californians balk at limits: ‘We’re not all equal when it comes to water’

Posted by $ nickursis 9 years, 11 months ago to Culture
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And so it gets worse. They will be using this to exert control over people all over the place down there. Hopefully the Climate Changers are right and they get rains like they did in 97 and can end this.


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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Well, sj, the only real successful govt project was the Manhattan one and they even screwed that up so that the russians had the plans before the 1st bomb fell. The Left coasts fetish for authority, in a place that whines about "free this and that" is amazing. Govt is predictable unstable and full of contradicitons. If they get their collective heads out of their A@@ then they could have enough storage set up for the theoretical drowning coming this winter from El Nino. But instead, they will dither and just slide away in a sea of mud.
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  • Posted by $ sjatkins 9 years, 10 months ago
    In the 21st century it is actually a travesty that the richest state in the US can't manage to produce adequate fresh water for its needs regardless of vagaries of nature such as drought. This is especially so for one with a large ocean front. Using cheap enough energy we could use desalination to meet any shortfall. Look at the Earth from space. It is covered in water. Yes it is only 3% or so fresh water and yes most of that is tied up in ice at the poles, but still.

    What energy could do this? Nuclear power. But of course the land of fruits and nuts (hey I live here and probably qualify for at least one of those) can't seem to abide that. The entire world is anti-nuclear power with few exceptions. This despite it having a three orders of magnitude better safety rating in terms of death/GwH than coal and two orders of magnitude better than oil and gas.

    And that is with designs you can actually get licensed in the West restricted to designs previously in operation. We know how to build nuclear plants that are extremely safe and would have sailed through even a Fukushima class confluence of disasters with ease. They would also produce 5% or less as much nuclear "waste".

    But I digress. The real point is that the real problem is government interference in the free market and anti-technological progress memetic warfare.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They might as well work for the road commission here in Mi. They have to rebuild and re-pave every few years because if they fix or build the roads properly and to last, they would be out of those over-bloated contracts paid for and courtesy of the taxpayer... I swear they only fill the potholes on the odd years to avoid giving too much money back to taxpayers with damaged vehicles.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 9 years, 10 months ago
    It's a failure to carry out proper infrastructure planning.
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  • Posted by walkabout 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    To paraphrase Shakespeare: "first we kill all the (self described and self aggrandizing) "environmentalists""
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Once upon a time back in the eighties the State of Oregon was in the normal drought years of a standard weather cycle. Using less water was a big issue.

    One town decided to allow watering for the west side on even days and the right side of town on odd numbered days. thus cutting the number of lawns in half. It worked too. The water system could handle it - but the total use went up. City Council said it was the best move available as the water flowed within 90 percent of capacity instead of the usual 60% and the income from water bills gave the town more money. The other plan was watering only between ten pm and four am. My friends house was on the dividing line and I had timers and pop up sprinkler heads. He watered every day. but used less water because he set the timers from 10PM to four AM West side midnight to four then 10 to midnight next say the reverse. Each side got watered twice every day and the water soaked in before the sun came up.

    Not all were that smart.The Oregon National Guard sent out a directive letting all the lawns at the armories ''brown'' except the State Guard HQ which was "watered every day to represent the Guard state wide." State government bought into that so guess where all the Willamette River watershed water went? If there was a way to cheat on a law and look stupid at the same time the doer probably worked for state government.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Trouble is and it is real trouble you can't take water from a wetlands area it's against the law. I can just see those California tunnels being finished then padlocked by judicial order.

    The next move will be forced resettlement to protect the wild and scenic desert lands and some endangered species or another.

    The whole thing will have to be rebuilt of course so it looks prehistorically natural.

    That should take care of Southern California.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    In point of fact, it goes to the local level. My county had a business blow up here that laid off 500 people, and they all screamed and moaned. A company wants to buy 255 acres, build a plant here and employ 500 people. The county refused them saying "it doesn't fit in with the county's character". yet they had to ram a special levy down our throats with fear mongering about how the criminal will all kill us because they have no sheriffs left because they have no money. And this is a 5 member Republicrat commission. Stupidity and special interests will trump common sense every time.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Exactly. I pointed that out somewhere else in here. They have a vested interest in making problems and ensuring they do not get solved, which is the heart of that cesspool called "DC". The more problems, the more agitated and fearful people get the more they contribute to "fix" it. I bet there is some math and a PHd buried in this idea. If you could gather dta a showing the level of problems and donations I bet they correlate.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I undersdtood, I just wanted to take the manipulation scheme a little further, being that no idea will ever fix the problem they are vested in it continuing, if you control vital resources and servces, you can squeeze more from the ones who have it, and screw those that don't. There are stories posted in here from last summer when peoples wells dried up because the megalopolisis pumped the water table down. That was what fed the people in this article. I am all for free market, but I am against the gov't manipulating it for those that they need for donations. I have yet to see anyone address the people who have been left high and dry for golf courses. If they want to pay for it fine, but jack the rates up to cover all the costs. I am sure some brilliant producer is in the background working on something to fix this mess, but will they be allowed? They already have plenty of options and have refused to use them, as it sabotages the whole premise of control by the authority. IMHO of course.
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  • Posted by Sunjock13 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    THAT statement is the prefect description of the underlying truth to all of Sacramento's action.... DC too!
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  • Posted by walkabout 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm all for Global Warming. It is when we have global cooling that humans don't do so well. History shows (as does pre-history) we, as a species do well when things warm up.
    As to water, it is not a supply problem, but a distribution problem. So we need some pipelines and canals and tunnels.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes. I find many politicians and bureaucrats create problems, yet never take responsibility, then capitalize on them. Job security...
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    i should explain if you replace inhale and exhale with two other words.....it's an old joke but fit this thread rather well.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Need a lot of garden hoses, then we threaten the garden hose plant with extinction...they wouldn't go for that, would have to make it an endangered species...
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree. Indded I have a well, and if I do not have a source of electricity to power my pump, and a working pump with no leaks in lines, I have no water "right". No one will come deliver it unless I pay for it, and my horses will soon die if I do not do something. These people think that because it has always come from a tap, that is is some sort of magic, like electricity, that can be obtained by money. No work, no effort needed. I have lots of water, but I work for it.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Now there is an argument for global warming! Oregon gets too much rain so it evaporates follows the wind patterns east and refills the Ogalla aquifer while producing acid rain for the supporters of Al Bores bituminous coal investments.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Well maybe if we ran a garden hose from Texas to California and they inhaled as well as they exhale ...? Ought to work.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Problem is, they expect the govt to deliver it and solve the problem and bill them. Wasting their valuable time on such miniscule issue interferes with important things. They just say "fix it" and then donate to whoever will say they will.
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  • Posted by $ 9 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Now that is an excellent point. And very true, but it is illustrative of the whole system failure we are watching. Politicians program the masses to believe that X is a problem, and "Oh my gosh!". Then they manipulate it for money and power. Never does solving the problem come into, their self interest is to keep the problem, and let it perpetuate. Voters take 20 years or so to burn out on a special interest, and some have never died off.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 9 years, 10 months ago
    The problem of letting the free market determine the price of scarce resources is that the scarceness of the resources in question was created by govern(mental) and environ(mental) stupidities and cronyism's. However a free market solution [if allowed] might end up creating value for everyone.
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 9 years, 10 months ago
    This cracked me up: [re CA]
    “It’s slowly becoming the land of one group telling everybody else how they think everybody should live their lives.”
    someone hasn't been paying attention, has he?
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