Sierra snowpack problem
Viewing Al “the former next president” Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” at the State Theater in Modesto the other night reminded me of the political disaster of the last six years and taught me that the velocity of climate change is faster than I had imagined. The installation of the Bush regime by the US Supreme Court in 2001 inaugurated a period of pure destruction in the US, a rampage of injustice, imperialism and greed, an orgy of lawless aggression by the wealthy against the rest of us few if any living Americans have ever seen. One casualty of the war of the Bush regime against the world was any concern for the environment. Fortunately, there were a number of wise laws in place and although they have been attacked and weakened greatly, and although enforcement of them has been savaged by this regime, most of them are still in place.
One has to wonder how this purely destructive policy over the last six years has contributed to the increased velocity of global warming, in view of the fact that the US is the world’s top producer of greenhouse gases. Perhaps if Gore had been chosen by the high court instead of Bush, we might be watching a decline in greenhouse gases; perhaps the US would be trying to do its duty, trying to be responsible, trying to help, instead of merely destroying everything on behalf of a plutocracy in favor of the government.
When we come to the problem of the decrease in the Sierra snowpack, however, we must consider that the closest contributor to the conditions causing it is the Central Valley between Sacramento and Fresno. Rampant, uncontrolled, irresponsible growth in this region has roofed over and paved over hundreds of thousands of acres of farm and ranch land that absorbed heat rather than radiating it. Yet, despite the research, all the state seems to be able to conclude from it is that our water supply will change – there will be less water stored for shorter periods as snow and more flooding from rain. Practically speaking, all this means in the near term is that the Great California Water War will continue and become more fierce because, clearly, we are all victims of each other and, of course, the fish or the laws that protect them.
We will think and say absolutely anything to avoid responsibility for our profound and growing contribution to melting the snowpack that provides most of our water. There is no malefactor too bogus to attract the enmity of our leaders, whose fingers are resolutely pointed outward. This is because the Central Valley, particularly the San Joaquin Valley, has clawed its way up from being a large, wet horse pasture to the verge of becoming the next San Fernando Valley, almost entirely as a result of the willingness of government to make the investment in irrigation systems that converted the Valley into an agricultural marvel. People in Bangor, ME, Mobile AL, Chicago, Beaumont TX, Helena MT, Las Truchas NM – people from all over the US contributed taxes to create the federal water projects that got the Valley past the horse-pasture stage. As they contributed to the construction of the railroad before the water.
As a result of this government largesse, our leaders believe that everything is nothing but another deal. But if Gore and the abundant responsible science behind him are correct, global warming cannot be solved by another political deal. Even the perpetually gullible, generous federal government cannot bail us out of this one.
The irresponsibility of the lastest speculative building boom, induced locally by the arrival of UC Merced, is reduced by the local McClatchy chain outlet to a story of how a DA and a sheriff ripped off a prisoner in a land deal. While it is evidence of the general stupidity, venality and political corruption occurring during any huge speculation, and “personalizes” the story, it diverts our attention from the problem. The public did not protect itself from its politicians. The public did not stand up for its own interests against the small, powerful cabal of businessmen, landowners, investors, politicians and their obedient propagandists. The public did not stand up against the awesome, amoral authority of the University of California and its edifice complex. The public in this region, contributing so much greenhouse gas to the Sierra, no longer seems capable of critical thought, can be bullied by two-bit frauds in office, accepts the lies of the local media at face value, is effortlessly intimidated by any authority, and is losing power economically, socially and politically the larger its population grows because no population anywhere near this size was ever intended to live in this place and support itself.
The only real question in the minds of our leaders today is how can the federal and state government fix the Sierra snowpack problem. They will rally prominent citizens and go to Washington and Sacramento and make their Big Whine again. It’s their one tune and it is getting more ridiculous by the year. Our leaders want clean air, more clean water, a healthy environment and, most of all, more growth. Now that we have the UC among us, ghoulishly planning medical research into lung disease with such a growing population of subjects, we are told that through the magic of UC marvelous technological inventions, it will all soon be OK again, we can become the new San Fernando Valley with a wonderful environment.
Our leaders have created a perfect set of mirrors to conceal reality and to admire themselves.
Bill Hatch
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Notes:
Sacramento Bee
Climate report sees a thirsty future...Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/v-print/story/14276733p-15086051c.html
As global warming continues and California's mountain snowpack decreases, the state can expect to see a drastic drop in its drinking and farm water supplies, as well as more frequent winter flooding...findings in a report released Monday by the state Department of Water Resources...338-page study, offers the most detailed look yet at how climate change could affect California water supplies. Average deliveries to cities and farms from state and federal water systems could shrink by more than 10 percent, according to the report. Called "Progress on Incorporating Climate Change into Management of California's Water Resources," the report employs two climate-change models and two emissions scenarios, one involving rapid growth and the other presenting a slower, more sustainable growth pattern. The results were not ready to be included in the California Water Plan Update, a report released last year that helps plan the state's growth. But Kelly said it offers a vital message for local governments.
Merced Sun-Star
Spencer purchased land from jailed man...Chris Collins
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12425122p-13147572c.html
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has launched a third investigation into Merced County District Attorney Gordon Spencer, this time examining whether Spencer committed a crime when he and a group of local investors bought a piece of property from a man who was sitting behind bars and facing charges from the District Attorney's Office. The latest investigation comes on top of an ongoing criminal probe into Spencer's potential embezzlement of public funds and an inquiry last December that found Spencer had impersonated an investigator. The attorney general is now looking into a 21-acre lot on Bellevue Road that Spencer, Sheriff Mark Pazin, Ranchwood Homes owner Greg Hostetler, and five other prominent locals purchased in 2004. The intersection of the two events created a clash that was "absolutely impermissible" by attorney ethics standards, said Weisberg, the Stanford law professor. "There was a conflict of interest. " Dougherty, the county's presiding judge, said Spencer never told Byrd's attorney about his involvement in buying Byrd's land. Kelsey said she always has been troubled that the sheriff and district attorney joined one of the county's biggest developers to buy the land.
Modesto Bee
Valley's environmental problems don't get fair hearing...Brad Baker
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/12409164p-13133834c.html
Are you ready for the equivalent of 10 new Fresnos? That's how many new people are expected in the San Joaquin Valley by 2040, according to experts from the Great Valley Center.... it's time to update the old cliché, "Growth is inevitable." Here are the replacements: Soul-sucking monstrous growth is inevitable. Don't like that one? How about: Cookie-cutter developments covering the most productive farmland in the history of the world are inevitable. Or maybe: Growth that is extremely unhealthy for children and other living things is inevitable. Which is your favorite? I moseyed down to Fresno last week for the Blueprint Summit. I hope for a fair presentation of the environmental perspective; I'm always disappointed. A token environmentalist often is included in the program...the "environmentalist" was a river runner from ElDorado County. His remarks avoided the most pressing environmental issues of the valley: air quality, sprawl, farmland preservation and the influence of the building industry on local politics. Sprawlocrats rule. In local elections, our only choices are the candidates who seem least likely to receive text-message instructions from the building industry during public meetings.
Los Angeles Times
Repeat of tragedy feared in San Joaquin Drainage Plan. Proposal for tainted San Joaquin drainage raises concerns about causing a new ecological disaster....Bettina Boxall
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kesterson8jul08,1,3140367,print....
LOS BANOS, Calif. — More than two decades after toxic farm drainage emptying into a small wildlife refuge stilled the chatter of migrating waterfowl with death and deformity, the federal government is on the verge of deciding what to do with vast amounts of tainted irrigation water still produced by San Joaquin Valley croplands. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is under court order to do something about the drainage problem. But its proposed solutions — which involve treating the tainted water and taking a huge chunk of farmland out of production — have raised alarms that they could wreak more environmental havoc while costing federal taxpayers a potentially enormous sum. Now, the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to create at least 1,270 acres of evaporation ponds as part of the drainage treatment has again raised the specter of Kesterson. A final decision is expected this summer.
Stockton Record
Delta salt battle intensifies...Warren Lutz
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060709/NEWS01/60709031...
STOCKTON - The fight over salt in the Delta appears headed to court. Several groups, including the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, have filed lawsuits against state water officials over new salt standards. And the Department of Water Resources, the other main supplier of drinking water to 23 million Californians, is considering the same. They are not the first legal actions involving Delta salt levels, which plague local farmers with lower crop yields. But they are the first since the state Water Resources Control Board ordered water exporters to meet a new salt standard or risk losing permits that allow them to control the bulk of the state's water. Agencies that buy Delta water also are suing the water board. One of them, the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority, claims the water exporters are not the only ones responsible for high salt in the Delta. Several lawsuits were filed against the state Water Resources Control Board on June 15 in Sacramento County Superior Court. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also has filed a federal lawsuit, a water board spokeswoman said.
Modesto Bee
We're ready for next step to improve valley air...Seyed Saredin, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/12432034p-13154335c.html
The San Joaquin Valley's severe air-quality problems present an opportunity for the valley to shine. Success will require bold, innovative actions by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District; the public's willingness to make air-friendly behavioral changes; better land-use decisions and design for communities that will minimize vehicle travel; and continued investment by valley businesses in technology and pollution control...we will need the state and federal governments to do their share through funding and regulatory assistance to reduce emissions from cars, trucks and locomotives. Ours was the first region in the nation to take steps to regulate emissions from on-field agricultural operations and dairies; to require mitigation from new commercial, residential and industrial developments; and to control emissions from large wineries. The San Joaquin Valley air district was the first in the state voluntarily to expand Smog Check II, a model now used to check Bay Area vehicles for emissions compliance. We have successfully implemented some of the toughest air regulations in the nation, while offering businesses reasonable operational flexibility. Over the next year, the district will formulate a plan to meet new standards. We will hold town hall meetings... The first meetings are July26 in Bakersfield and Delano, July27 in Fresno and Huron, and July28 in Modesto and Stockton. Please visit www.valleyair.org for more information.
There's plenty of water -- we just need to manage it intelligently...Dan Walters
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/state/walters/story/14277088p-15086272c.html
All Californians should know that their water doesn't come from a faucet, but is collected, stored and distributed through monumental arrays of dams, reservoirs, canals and pipelines that supplement nature's own impressive water systems. It's an imperfect system, to be certain, but it has worked admirably... California must expand and refine its waterworks. To do nothing in the face of that change is to move backward. The governor's warning about potential flood peril was underscored by the 338-page Department of Water Resources report on potential effects of global warming... DWR also noted that as the weather warms, California may receive more of its water in the form of rain and less in the form of snow, which could heighten winter flood dangers and reduce the natural reservoirs of mountain snowpacks. In truth, California has lots of water, more than enough to satisfy all reasonable demands for human and natural uses, if it's managed intelligently and with users paying its full, unsubsidized costs. We do not need to radically change our lifestyles or adopt doomsday scenarios. Even if the effects of global warming seen in the DWR report come true, stronger winter flows can be converted into better summer supplies, if we do what's needed and stop circular debates that serve other ideological agendas.
Sacramento Bee
Water's coming battle...Editorial
http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/v-print/story/14277040p-15086253c....
A new report warning of global warming's effect on California highlights the different approaches for solving the problem of a shrinking water supply. When it comes to calibrating water supply and demand, two opposing political philosophies rule. There is the concrete crowd that wants to increase supply. And there is a conservation crowd that seeks to lower the demand. The singular political fixation on reservoirs as good or evil creates a set of false choices. On the supply side, there is groundwater storage or better groundwater management... The right mix of solutions depends on the specific circumstances and terrain. The wrong solution is to think concrete or conservation alone can solve all our problems.
Stockton Record
Smelt still at record lows...Warren Lutz
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060712/NEWS01/60712033...
STOCKTON - The Delta smelt are hanging on, but just barely. The endangered fish that are used to gauge the overall condition of the Delta remain at record lows, according to the latest survey. Meanwhile, scientists studying the decline are being asked increasingly how to reverse the trend. Last week, the federal government said it would re-examine the effects of pumping Delta water, but there has been no formal discussion about changing the way the pumps are run, said Louis Moore, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman. The California Department of Water Resources, the other agency responsible for exporting Delta water, will draft a Delta smelt action plan by October. Johns agreed scientists are under pressure for answers, not just data.
Los Angeles Times
Schwarzenegger acts to guard State Wilderness. The governor will ask federal officials to ban new roads for mining and other development in 4.4 million acres of national forest...Robert Salladay
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-roads12jul12,0,7373545,print.sto...
SACRAMENTO — Ending one of his remaining fights with environmentalists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the federal government today to protect 4.4 million acres of national forests from any new roads for timber, oil or gas exploration or other development. If approved, the Schwarzenegger plan would allay environmentalists' fears that national forest land in California would be opened to development, endangering fish and wildlife. The governor's request was in response to a controversial Bush administration rule that opened millions of "roadless" areas nationwide.
Seabird slaughter in a 'Safe' Harbor. Could the deaths of thousands of terns in Long Beach have been prevented?...Kimball L. Garrett and Kathy C. Molina
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-garrett12jul12,0,52...
IT SHOULD SURPRISE no one that the coast of Southern California is a difficult place for wildlife to make a living. Tens of millions of people, busy ports, toxic urban and agricultural runoff, overexploitation of marine resources and the relentless destruction of rivers and estuaries make it astonishing and somehow reassuringly life-affirming that thousands of terns - slim seabirds related to gulls - manage to nest along our shores. But the events of last week - when the bodies of several hundred young Caspian and elegant terns were found littering the Long Beach Harbor shore, and the nesting efforts of perhaps 2,000 adult terns on two barges in the port were carelessly erased - underscore the clumsiness of our wildlife-protection efforts and the tenuous threads that sustain our remaining natural heritage. "Terngate" also points to a fundamental problem: Our management of wildlife is disproportionately centered on the protection of the few species that have met the proper political tests to earn and keep an "endangered" or "threatened" designation. The only tern colony site in Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor that has received protective management is for the California least tern, listed by the state and federal agencies as endangered. That's insufficient when species such as the Caspian and elegant terns are kept on the run.