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The impact of California’s water policies is far-reaching. More than just a question of the length of showers, they directly contribute to high unemployment and poverty. The solution to our water crisis can boost employment and reduce poverty – and it’s high time we get practical about it.

In the last 15 years, I have traveled to 54 of California’s 58 counties. It is heartbreaking to see the effects of our policies in places such as East Porterville, where residents go without water, or the divisions that these policies cause over property rights, reservoirs and dams.

On a day that brought with it two inches of rain in Wofford Heights and a quarter inch of rain at Meadows Field, experts gathered to discuss the effect El Niño will have on Kern County this year.

The “El Niño: Miracle or Just Mediocre” discussion was held Tuesday by the Water Association of Kern County, along with KBAK.

Atop a dirt levee his great-grandfather built in the 1800s to hold back California’s mightiest river, Northern California farmer Russell van Loben Sels looks out over the site of a new water project, one that would be the state’s most ambitious in a half-century.

Promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown, the $15.7 billion project would run giant twin pipes, each four stories high, underground for 35 miles and eventually pull thousands of gallons of water a second from the stretch along the Sacramento River where van Loben Sels farms to cities and farms to the south.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to restructure California’s water system by building two massive underground tunnels to divert water to farms and cities in the south. But his administration faces strong opposition for the $15.7 billion project.

Between 6 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday, nearly 2 inches of rain fell on downtown Modesto, according to Modesto Irrigation District monitoring equipment.

The “parade of storms,” as the National Weather Service put it, will impact Northern California through Tuesday and again Friday. The first entry caused a few scattered power failures, MID spokeswoman Melissa Williams said Monday. A crew was working Monday morning on K Street between 11th and 12th streets to restore power after a falling tree struck lines.