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Originally posted by redneck


If this doesn't concern everyone, then I don't know what will.



Delawhere Jack

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack your thread. Just thought it was a good fit.

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Originally posted by No82s

Not being up on water rights and such, I need to ask how Congress created this? I know its been dry out west for a few years but what precipitated (no pun intended) this?

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Are there people in congress that are working for someone other than US?

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Originally posted by Nickelless

How long has this dust bowl been policy in California?

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Early in 2009, the Bureau of Reclamation, for the first time in the history of the CVP, projected zero water allocations for agricultural water service contractors on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley. Despite adjustments to provide token water deliveries, no meaningful relief has come. As a consequence, as much as 500,000 acres will be forced out of production and, according to a recent forecast by economists at the University of California, Davis, more than 40,000 farm workers will lose their jobs. Moreover, these job losses will occur in poor, rural communities, such as the City of Mendota, which already has unemployment rates in excess of 40%, and these communities are the least capable of reacting to this economic devastation.

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Water scarcity looms as a major challenge to California's $37-billion agricultural industry, which has long relied on imported water to bloom. The consequences of closing the spigot are already evident here in rural Fresno County, about 230 miles north of Los Angeles. Lost farm revenue will top $900 million in the San Joaquin Valley this year, said UC Davis economist Richard Howitt, who estimates that water woes will cost the recession-battered region an additional 30,000 jobs in 2009.

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Standing in a parched field in 104-degree heat, valley farmer Joe Del Bosque pointed to cracked earth where tomatoes should be growing. He didn't bother this year because he can't get enough water to irrigate them. He's cultivating only about half of the cantaloupe and asparagus that he did in 2007. He has slashed his workforce, and his bills are mounting.

"We can't survive at 10% of our water," said Del Bosque, 60, a white cowboy hat, long sleeves and jeans protecting him from the blistering sun.

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Sporadic food giveaways by churches and nonprofits draw hundreds of people. Enrollment in area schools has dropped by a quarter this year. Crime is up, so much, in fact, that the cash-strapped town voted in May to form its own police department rather than rely on the county sheriff.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month asked President Obama to declare Fresno County a disaster area to boost federal aid. But that's not what the farmers say they want. At a recent town hall meeting in Fresno, while some women in the audience knitted, men in baseball caps and T-shirts shouted down officials from the Interior Department: "We don't want welfare, we want water."

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"This sounds like the Mother Teresa approach," said Shawn Coburn, a farmer who helped found the Latino Water Coalition. "These guys are living in a fantasy world. When you're talking about reappropriating water rights, you're messing with the value of property and it's enormous. It's Socialism 101."

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Before you ask why you should care about this if you don't live in California, consider that the Golden State is home to nine of the nation's ten largest farming counties. It supplies over half of the country's fruits, nuts and vegetables and over 90 percent of our almonds, artichokes, avocados, broccoli and processing tomatoes.

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Originally posted by Tourney64
Are there people in congress that are working for someone other than US?

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