Tag Archive for: Opinion

Opinion: Another Water War Washes Over the MWD

/in , /by /Pasadena Star-Newsby Rick Cole

In the final scene of “Chinatown,” the noir movie version of Los Angeles’s original water grab, anti-hero Jack Nicholson confronts the brutal triumph of the film’s “pillar of the establishment” villain. The cops don’t want to hear his story.  They invoke the racist trope that the law of the jungle rules in the ethnic enclave where the scene occurs: “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” The real life water wars continue, however, and it remains to be seen who will win the current power struggle at the Metropolitan Water District.

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Opinion: Water Board Choice is Key to Providing Clean Water For All

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Belinda Faustinos and Barbara Barrigan

California’s drought highlights the importance of an appointment sitting on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk – filling the final seat on the State Water Resources Control Board.   This is a critical agency appointment at a critical time.

The drought highlights many inequities in California water policy.

Disadvantaged communities in Stockton face the prospect of a drought summer plagued by harmful algae blooms in Delta rivers.  Those algae outbreaks, which can harm children and kill pets, are caused by excessive nutrients and inadequate freshwater flow.  Think what it means for a parent to be afraid for their child’s health if they swim in a river on a hot summer day.

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Opinion: How Better Data Can Help California Avoid a Drinking Water Crisis

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rich Pauloo and Alva Escriva-Bou

Drought is here — and we’re beginning to feel the effects. A majority of affected households during the last drought were in the San Joaquin Valley and these same communities are among the most vulnerable this time. As California faces a second year of drought, many are left to wonder, “What can be done to help?” Last time, small rural communities reliant on shallow wells — many of them communities of color — were among the most affected. More than 2,600 households reported losing access to water because their wells went dry between 2012–16. (That number is likely an undercount as reporting was voluntary.) Much has changed however since the 2012–16 drought.

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Opinion: How Infrastructure Plan Can Accelerate Resilience

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Amanda Brown-Stevens

Passing President Biden’s infrastructure bill would be the most significant step we’ve taken as a nation to start to address climate change head on.

Greenbelt Alliance believes this infrastructure bill is a great start. Yet, so far there is no path to guide how we can equitably shift away from rebuilding in the most climate-vulnerable areas and instead build for a more resilient future.

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Opinion: Wastewater Recycling Got Derailed in Los Angeles. Now it’s Back On Track

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Marc Haefele

Twenty years ago, in the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race, a topic usually seen as dull became the most lurid issue of the campaign. The topic was water recycling, and we are still being hurt by the rhetoric from that election today.

Candidate Joel Wachs, a longtime member of the City Council, didn’t even make the runoff that year. But during the primary he alarmed voters across the city by insisting that Los Angeles was furtively planning to pipe recycled sewage to millions of unsuspecting Angelenos — without, according to Wachs, adequate public input or scientific research.

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Opinion: Abatti and Friends Knock On The U.S. Supreme Court Door

/in , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Brian McNeece

The dispute between Imperial Valley farmer Mike Abatti and the Imperial Irrigation District over water rights entered a new chapter last month. Mr. Abatti filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the court to review last year’s California appellate court’s ruling in the IID’s favor.

Our local Imperial County Farm Bureau and the California Farm Bureau, along with some individual valley farmers, then filed amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Mr. Abatti’s petition for review.

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Opinion: California is One of the Most Biodiverse Places On the Planet. Here’s Why We are Losing Our Biodiversity at an Alarming Rate

/in , , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Charlton H. Bonham

Bonham is the director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on a bone-dry lakebed in Northern California and announced the state is experiencing drought conditions again. Thus far, the most severe conditions are in specific northern watersheds such as the Russian and Klamath river basins. In the San Diego region, investments in diversifying water sources, conserving and recycling have enhanced resiliency to drought conditions.

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Opinion: Pumping Up Fear Along the Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby George Sibley

Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They pointed to the ceiling, where an axe was embedded in a rafter.

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Opinion: Failure to Prepare Deepens the Pain from Dry Years

/in , /by /AgAlertby Danny Merkley and Chris Scheuring

It’s that time of year, when we find out it’s that kind of year. We appear at the doorstep of a “critically dry year,” and most reservoir levels are significantly below average. Those conditions bring painfully to mind the awful drought years of 2014 and 2015, and threaten water supplies for California farms and cities, and for the protected fish species that must also get by in these lean years. For direct diverters, the State Water Resources Control Board recently sent letters to 40,000 water right holders of record, asking them to start planning for potential water supply shortages later this year, and identifying actions water users can take to increase drought resilience.

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Opinion: With San Francisco Bay On Life Support, Newsom Withholds the Cure

/in , /by /CalMattersby Jon Rosenfield

San Francisco Bay’s life support systems are unravelling quickly, and a wealth of science indicates that unsustainable water diversions are driving this estuary’s demise.

Yet, with another drought looming, federal and state water managers still plan to divert large amounts of water to their contractors and drain upstream reservoirs this summer. Meanwhile, the state’s most powerful water districts are preparing yet another proposal to maintain excessive water diversions for the long-term.

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