Considering they’d been walloped by a court ruling the previous week, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) General Manager Steve Knell and water attorney Tim O’Laughlin looked surprisingly confident when they arrived early for Tuesday night’s special board meeting. They were preceded by rumors on social media and elsewhere that O’Laughlin would use Judge Roger Beauchesne’s decision as an excuse to deny water to out-of-district applicants for OID surface water. Beauchesne had […]
Environment
The Hidden Truth about Valley Water
The recent deluge throughout Northern California has caused equal parts celebration and outrage. Celebration because it would appear to some the drought is over and outrage because those same celebrants are demonizing anyone who says we’re still in a water emergency. As always, the favored targets for righteous indignation are the government and, “those in environmental groups.” “Why would the state water board tell us we’re still in drought?’ asked […]
OID: How to Endanger a Species
To hear Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) management tell it, 3000 acres is a mere pittance. The acreage is what OID estimates would be fallowed in a program it calls the “On-Farm Conservation Program.” OID claims the area is so small and environmental impacts so low that there’s no need for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The program is currently part of a lawsuit by the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance. Attorneys for […]
OID Suit about More than Water
Over most of its forty-six year history, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been most often associated with developers and urban sprawl. With few exceptions, agriculture was virtually exempt from CEQA review. The almond boom and a six-year drought changed everything. Today, farming is no longer surrounded by a holy aura. The farmer as corporate businessman is as much a part of the ag image as the family farmer […]
Water: “A Pox upon Them All,” says Bruce Frohman
Even though Stanislaus County has suffered only 5 years of drought, citizens of Modesto have been under some form of water rationing for over 20 years. We are permitted to water our yards once a week in winter and twice a week in summer. Many of us allow our lawns to die each summer in order to conserve water “for the good of the community.” Our level of disgust with local […]
Down and Dirty Water Wars: Part IV
Mainstream media, especially newspapers, have an obligation to avoid the twin evils of misinformation and fake news, even on the opinion pages. This doesn’t mean we should expect OP/ED contributions to be free from bias, hysteria, hyperbole, name-calling, invective and other traditional tools of political discourse. Distortions though they are, these are long-accustomed elements of our free-speech heritage. But particularly in places where there is only one mainstream news source, […]
Down and Dirty Water Wars: Part III
There are a lot of bad arguments against increased flows along Valley rivers. Many pit people against fish. Others use reductionist tactics, citing the dollar costs of saving threatened species but omitting long-term recovery goals. Some rise from merely bad to bizarre. Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) Manager Steve Knell, for example, has decided increased flows are all about saving “220 nesting pair” of salmon. Not surprisingly, Knell concludes that the […]
Down and Dirty Water Wars: Part II
When James Madison wrote, “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause,” he didn’t mean people could or even should stop arguing in their own interests; he just meant it was nearly impossible to achieve justice for all when arguing on one’s own behalf. So it is with water in California. State proposals for increased flows along our rivers have resulted in impassioned arguments, most of […]
Down and Dirty Water Wars: Part I
It’s perfectly understandable that anyone taking a stand in favor of increased river flows in the northern San Joaquin Valley is likely to be compared to an assailant of motherhood, apple pie and Fourth of July fireworks. After all, the Valley will indeed take an economic hit from increased flows, and no one wants to take economic hits anywhere or anytime. But that’s the problem. The state has to decide […]
The Real Water Grabs
The signs are up all around Stanislaus County. “Worth your Fight,” they say, and the “o” in “worth” is in the shape of a water drop. Local media and political leaders are shouting, “water grab,” and have plenty of support in their opposition to the state’s proposal to increase flows along Valley rivers. Water, of course, is worth everyone’s fight, and that’s just where the state’s problems begin. King Solomon […]