About the only thing most everyone agrees on about salmon on the Tuolumne River is there aren’t as many as there used to be. Disagreements arise when people try to explain why. While there are some exceptions, most of the disputants fall into one of two groups. The “flow” people argue that dams and consequent reduced flows along rivers during migration have decimated salmon runs. They say that reduced flows […]
Environment
Why Property Rights and Groundwater Won’t Wash
Almost anyone who reflects a minute or two can see California groundwater law is based on an absurd assumption. Essentially, the law says groundwater belongs to the owner of the land above it. Once it’s acknowledged that groundwater isn’t distributed along property lines, the law doesn’t make much sense. It makes less sense once it’s understood that groundwater moves from place to place. And it becomes absurd when we realize […]
Supervisors Issue Blank Check to Water Miners
Tuesday, June 10, Stanislaus County Supervisors issued a blank check to water miners. Of those present, only Supervisor Jim DeMartini seemed willing to speak candidly about the process. “This is like squirting water on the outhouse when your house is burning down,” he said. DeMartini was referring to the Stanislaus Water Advisory Committee’s (SWAC) seventeen point “action plan.” To many, the plan seems dedicated to avoiding groundwater problems rather than […]
Will Supervisors Pass the Water Test?
To hear the Modesto Bee tell it, Stanislaus County Supervisors’ attempts to formulate a groundwater policy are explorations into terra incognita: “Being first can make you the focus of a lot of attention. That’s just one of the reasons Stanislaus County’s efforts to deal with water issues are important. We’re among the first in the Valley coming to grips with finding and supplying enough water to keep agriculture not just […]
Water Advisory Committee Wastes Time and Money
If your accountant told you to keep spending money until you found out how much you had, you’d fire your accountant. But insanity about money doesn’t translate to insanity about water. Spending without knowing how much you have is the rule with groundwater in California, and that’s why the state is over drafted almost everywhere. Up until recently, one of the few places that still had plenty of groundwater was […]
Want Water? Here’s a Better Alternative to Tunnels
Governor Jerry Brown proposes to build two tunnels under the San Joaquin River Delta at a cost of billions of dollars. The tunnels’ sole purpose would be to move water. They would have no effect on storage capacity. We’ve already advocated desalinization plants to make water instead of building tunnels to move water. There’s also a better way to control floods and store water in the Great Valley. In 1846, you could […]
Will Modesto Boundaries Protect Enough Farmland?
News item: 1.5 Million Square Feet Warehouse To Be Built Near Patterson For over 10 years, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors has been trying to develop a business park at the former Crows Landing Naval Air Station. The location is only a few miles from Patterson. In 10 years, nothing has been accomplished at Crows Landing. Instead of having a 1.5 million square feet warehouse located at Crows Landing, […]
Water Shortage? Dams Are Not the Answer
As the drought worsens, it’s only inevitable that cries for more dams become louder and more frequent. One of the latest came from the Modesto Bee’s Mike Dunbar in a May 3 editorial when he wrote, Our best-case scenario? The tunnel plan collapses and new dams provide more water for everyone to share, even in the driest droughts. But if dams were the solution to our water problems, we wouldn’t […]
MID Water Policy Unfair to Farmers
Editor’s note: Please note a correction below this article; we apologize for the error. If you were a farmer during a drought, wouldn’t you like to have an unlimited supply of water? Wouldn’t you also like access to river water and have the privilege of selling it? In Stanislaus County, some farmers have special privileges given to them by the Board of Directors of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID). In order […]
Why California Groundwater Policy Must Change
It’s often said that California is the only state that doesn’t regulate groundwater, but that’s not exactly true. In California, one rule always applies. Though unwritten, it exists in the form of dogma more powerful than words graven in stone: Any official, at any level, whenever speaking of groundwater, must assert emphatically that local control is the best of all possible alternatives. No matter that history, science, and current realities […]