For people facing yet another dry spell in California following the 2015-2016 drought five years ago it doesn’t look like much has changed. In the west where water is not certain, 60-plus years ago California invested in one of the greatest engineering projects in history. A water infrastructure that could supply a state of 16 million people through five-years of drought was constructed. In the meantime California has grown to 40 million people and we haven’t been able to plan for drought but we can spend billions on a high speed rail line that might, if it ever gets built, stretch from Merced to Bakersfield.
Government Inability
None of the water storage projects approved in 2014 by Prop One have been completed. Almost none of the money slated for those projects has even been spent. Despite the words and actions of California’s elected officials the reality is we’re no better prepared for drought conditions than we were in 2013.
The appointed officials are hardly any better. Some members of the Regional Boards are now referring to themselves as the “regulatory community” and claiming responsibility to right societal justice as they define it. The State Board is out of control, practicing the worst kinds of unrestrained bureaucratic overreach and mission drift. Meanwhile the
bureaucracies these unelected servants of the people are tasked with leading are often left rudderless and unsupplied. The Department of Water Resources has been burdened with shepherding a entirely new class of government overlay, SGMA without the proper resources, personnel are being pushed to limits.
Most of the media doesn’t help bring clarity to the situation. During an attempt to recall one of the most inept and politically tone-deaf governors California has ever seen the largest newspaper west of the Appalachian Mountains tarred an African American gubernatorial candidate the “black face of white supremacy” while protestors dressed as monkeys threw eggs at him.
Now that Gavin Newsom has dodged the recall bullet state government support for the so called Voluntary Agreements has been pulled, leaving the people in the San Joaquin Valley depending on water from the San Joaquin River tributaries more vulnerable than ever.
There have even been cries to dilute and make far more difficult recall efforts and ballot initiatives originating outside of the legislature. There are parallels here. Regulate surface water then deny surface supplies forcing more pumping of groundwater. Regulate groundwater and deny pumping. It’s a perfect recipe to take control of all water by the state and by default control of people. Now watch, take away the ballot initiative and give all control to the political class.
A Cure for Government Inability
But the ballot initiative was designed for times like these. When government inaction and lack of accountability force the people having to live with the results of such inaction and unaccountability, to take matters before the voters.
The More Water Now ballot initiative, official title “The Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022” is a solution to a state government mired up to its axles in regulatory and special interest NGO red-tape inability to properly prepare for the inevitable drought. Passage will require the state to act like one of the top 10 world economies it claims to be and invest two percent of its general fund in water supplies until five million new acre feet of water is developed.
Remember the media can’t be counted on. The San Jose Mercury News in keeping with its editorial board position of condemning anything that doesn’t either directly benefit the
Mercury News or make the board feel warm and fuzzy about itself published a hit piece against the initiative on Friday, November 19th. Could the Mercury News be the white face of white leftist supremacy? The editorial was full of the usual unfounded, extremist tripe about the evils of big ag. One bit of comfort – thankfully if California followed the Mercury News’s opines we’d have long ago stopped functioning altogether.
The truth is California’s agricultural industry by itself doesn’t have the necessary clout to get this ballot passed. The More Water Now ballot initiative is going to require help. It needs to secure 1.5 million signatures from registered voters to qualify for the ballot and it only has a few months to do so. That means it has to get its donations in order right away.
The good news is momentum is building; at least 27 Assemblymembers and State Senators have signed a letter of endorsement. These are men and women of both the Democrat and Republican parties with districts in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California.
It’s not just ag; businesses, cities and counties, organizations and urban and rural water districts have endorsed the More Water Now Initiative.
Ag’s Part
More Water Now’s funding is unique. It’s not using bonds and its fund raising is unique also. Realizing the ag industry has been the target for all manner of solicitations for political ends an outright cry for cash isn’t the first step.
Rather, a prominent group of, so far 12 leaders in the farming community, will issue a letter asking for pledges. Their goal is $1 million. When More Water Now can show that level of interest from ag it will be easier to encourage other targeted demographics to come on board. For example construction. Home builders, trade unions, transportation – everyone needs water. Only after the other partners pledge $5 million will actual checks be requested.
Time is tight and there is an urgency to get these pledges before the distraction of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Go here to find out more https://MoreWaterNow.com
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