5,
April
2015 California’s Drought
Governor Brown’s executive order imposing mandatory water
use reductions of 25 percent on California’s cities and towns is certainly a
step in the right direction. But why has California’s giant agriculture
industry, which accounts for 80 percent of the state’s water use, been given a
free pass? There is little incentive for California’s agricultural farmers to
conserve and make the hard choices eliminating water intensive crops such as
alfalfa and rice in favor of water sustainable crops. Almonds use about 10% of
California’s water and alfalfa about 12%. Almonds are an export cash crop
funded by ‘eastern banks’ at high profit margins but contribute little to the
local economy. Each almond requires about 1 gallon of water. Farmers should be
encouraged to phase out these water intensive crops with assistance from the
state and federal government. Fracking, which uses enormous quantities of water
and is extremely hazardless to the environment and may trigger seismic activity
– should be banned.
Finally, the multi-billion boondoggle high-speed rail
should be abandoned in favor of a building a freshwater pipeline from Oregon to
California.
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