6 Scary Facts About California's Drought

[Bennyboy]

47. Some water management issues.....

During the current drought, the public will hear a lot about water management in California. Unfortunately, Californians are being presented with a false dichotomy – that California’s water problems are about fish vs. people. It’s what large corporate agribusinesses from the Westlands Water District and Kern County Water Agency have been pushing on the public since 2009. While we agree with these opposing groups that we have a water management problem that is harming everyday people, the facts show that the causes and solutions are different than what they claim.

Over the past 10 years, Westlands and Kern have taken more water from the Delta on an annual average basis than the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District combined – even though tens of millions of people use water in these urban water districts. Yet Westlands and Kern County growers contribute less than 0.3 percent to the state’s annual GDP, and the farmworker communities found within these water districts suffer from high unemployment even when there’s plenty of water flowing through the system.

Reservoirs serving the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California are filled to 93 percent, 97 percent and 103 percent of capacity. Recently, Metropolitan Water District’s Jeff Kightlinger said the district has enough water in storage to get through the next two to three years if this dry period should continue.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6097073/viewpoints-better-solutions-for.html#storylink=cpyhttp://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6097073/viewpoints-better-solutions-for.html