During the global cooling and drying drought of 1977, Jerry Brown called it “the worst in recorded history” and said that desalination of seawater was needed.
9 Jun 1977, Page 1 – at Newspapers.com
He didn’t do anything about it then, so now he blames “climate change” for cyclical California droughts.
Jerry Brown on California drought: ‘Climate change is not a hoax’ | MSNBC
Drought is a normal part of the California climate. Scientists have known for decades that California is prone to very long and severe droughts, and that wet periods are the exception rather than the rule.
Yes California mega-droughts are likely to happen again.
Him or his dad?
Same governor as now.
During those 1970s, Brown fought every dam project he could. He joined the Sierra Club and refused to fill New Melones Reservoir (until a Pineapple Express did it for him, the dam saving tens of thousands from flooding).
He also opposed the Auburn Dam (1980 budget $1B), a facility that was part of the 1930s original Central Valley Project design, a move which also put Sacramento in jeopardy of flooding. In 1986, Folsom almost overtopped because of this. Only by releasing above-rated-capacity flows was the city saved. Great story on that here: http://parkwayblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/floods-of-1986-sober-reminder.html Today, the Army Corps is spending $1B on a redesigned control structure to fix the vulnerability.
Then Brown set out to build the Peripheral Canal, which would divert even more No. California water, south. Voters had enough of that and thankfully voted against it, otherwise the reservoirs would be even more empty. Before this drought, Brown tried again to build tunnels that would accomplish the same thing.
Jerry Brown is like a 40 year plague on CA’s water resources. Great men built mammoth structures to improve millions of people’s lives, and one man has made it dysfunctional.
“Jerry Brown is like a 40 year plague on CA’s water resources. “
Good one liner.
“The River Stops Here” is a great write up about how the big irrigation projects ground to a halt, focusing on the Dos Rios Dam. It mentions the Auburn Dam too.
http://www.amazon.com/The-River-Stops-Here-Californias/dp/0520230566
What’s your solution, Steven? It appears that Governor Brown is taking action.
“it appears that Governor Brown is taking action.”
Of the “do something, even if it’s wrong” variety.
Not speaking for Steven – maybe the Gov could recognize that over the last 1200 years California has experienced severe multi-decade droughts and will certainly experience them again. After that epiphany take steps to increase the water supply, maybe build new dams.
Rationing is crisis management, not a legitimate plan for resolution.
It is even worse that crisis management. If Rationing is used in moderate climate, like we have now, then when a TRUE DROUGHT hits there will be no margin left and people will have to move or die.
Obviously the correct move is to invite in some Israeli engineers and get those desal (and nuclear) plants built. However you need POWER to run those plants and of course Old Gov Moonbeam is completely opposed to electric power for California. So I guess the loony left will just have to suffer. (Just make sure to close the border so they can’t escape)
Maybe just charge a free market rate for water supplies. No government subsidies, no monopoly distribution rights, no seizure of water and property by eminent domain. People who built homes in deserts should pay for water whatever the actual cost is and when water reaches the point of being too expensive, people will decide not to build more homes in the desert.
I have a cabin which is off the grid. I realize that no one owes me water or electricity. I pump my own water and I generate by own power. If the land did not have water I would expect to pay an appropriate price to have it shipped in. I do not think it is ethical to expect the government to suck tax dollars (by the use of armed force) from honest citizens to help pay for my utilities. Why should the people who live in deserts use government violence to get cheap water at the cost of other citizens?
The Peripheral Canal proposed by Jerry Brown in the late 70s to send No. CA water south, was linked to the final completion of Interstate 5 which was finally finished in October 1979. Realize a 1400 mile interstate connecting Mexico to USA to Canada went unfinished until late 1979. Why? Notice that the proposed route followed I5 (green line) over the very stretch that was left incomplete:
https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/07/06/peripheral_canal_090217-small.jpg
When my Dad and I started using the finished I5 to get to our boat in the Sacramento Delta, the finished I5 was lined with canals where they had excavated ground for the road base. I5 went unfinished for decades until the peripheral canal was resurrected by Jerry Brown (quashed by voters in 1982). BTW the previous scheme was pushed by Pat Brown in the 1960s when it also failed.
You can BET that Jerry Brown’s Bullet Train includes similar infrastructure along the route. Realize that the CA Bullet Train is not about transportation…it’s about canals and pipelines to drain No. California…It’s about water! Everything in CA is about WATER.