While I was away last week, the House passed HR1837, the California Water’s Fer Fightin’ Over Act of 2012 (pdf). The vote was largely along party lines, with only one Republican voting against the bill. Who was that lone R dissenter? Justin Amash, a 31-year-old Michigan legislator ranked by the Club for Growth as the …
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Two of Inkstain’s bedrock principles involve 1) correcting errors of fact quickly, and 2) re-running, as often as possible, the “best pork buns in town Hetch Hetchy” picture I took in San Francisco’s Chinatown last year. This one’s a twofer. In the aforementioned “Hetch Hetchy – Best Pork Bun in Town” post, I incorrectly argued …
As the scratching of heads continues (“What exactly is Devin Nunes up to really?“) we have this explanation of his motiviation, from Michael Cannon: To create discord and strain relations. He is safe in his district, so he can do what he wants. He wants to fracture relations
I love the New York Times for many reasons. This line from their editorial about Hetch Hetchy, the Yosemite reservoir serving Sacramento, is one of them: Ninety-nine years ago, this newspaper argued against the construction of the dam. We lost, but the much bigger loss was nature’s. That’s owning your heritage.
There are three interlocking fundamental federal water policy/politics principles that are important to understanding current discussions over California congressman Devin Nunes’ legislation aimed at reshaping the distribution of water flowing through his state’s Central Valley. First, federal subsidy has long been necessary for the big water projects that make the West as we know it …
Just when you thought the clown car that is California water politics was empty, out pops a San Francisco ballot initiative to drain Hetch Hetchy: The measure, which would be submitted to the San Francisco city attorney next week, would require the city to embark on a process to put itself “on a path toward …
Continue reading ‘“our San Franciscan water the cleanest water in the whole world!”’ »
In communities that fully reuse their wastewater (Albuquerque and Las Vegas do this now, for example, by returning sewage treatment effluent to the water’s source), it’s outdoor water use that dominates the water supply equation. And here in the arid southwest, sooner or later everyone will fully reuse their wastewater. This is not an argument …
Mark Lubbell at UC Davis makes the case for abandoning the Mark Twain “whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’ over” quote, and not just because Twain didn’t say it: Unfortunately, perpetuating water wars and the language of conflict will never solve California’s water problems. Water wars are equivalent to the “tragedy” aspect of managing common-pool …
John Bass has been pushing an excellent question about the direction of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan: Why isn’t the “fortress Delta” solution the most cost effective way of pursuing the co-equal goals question. John’s come to this line of thinking based on a cost-benefit argument: Couldn’t armoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levees achieve the …
Continue reading ‘As Southern California eyes the Delta, a question of cost’ »
Elizabeth Varin had an interesting story this morning about the latest Imperial Irrigation District discussions about the Quantification Settlement Agreement*, the Byzantine** water deal that provided a path for California to go on a Colorado River diet (reducing its use to its legally allotted 4.4 million acre feet per year). The deal has two key …