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Page added on April 11, 2015
California delta’s water missing amid drought
As California struggles with a devastating drought, huge amounts of water are mysteriously vanishing from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and the prime suspects are farmers whose families have tilled fertile soil there for generations.
A state investigation was launched following complaints from two large agencies that supply water to arid farmland in the Central Valley and to millions of residents as far south as San Diego.
Delta farmers don’t deny using as much water as they need. But they say they’re not stealing it because their history of living at the water’s edge gives them that right. Still, they have been asked to report how much water they’re pumping and to prove their legal rights to it.
At issue is California’s century-old water rights system that has been based on self-reporting and little oversight, historically giving senior water rights holders the ability to use as much water as they need, even in drought. Gov. Jerry Brown has said that if drought continues this system built into California’s legal framework will probably need to be examined.
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Delta farmer Rudy Mussi says he has senior water rights, putting him in line ahead of those with lower ranking, or junior, water rights.
“If there’s surplus water, hey, I don’t mind sharing it,” Mussi said. “I don’t want anybody with junior water rights leapfrogging my senior water rights just because they have more money and more political clout.”
The fight pitting farmer against farmer is playing out in the Delta, the hub of the state’s water system. With no indication of the drought easing, heightened attention is being placed on dwindling water throughout the state, which produces nearly half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the U.S.
A large inland estuary east of San Francisco, the Delta is fed by rivers of freshwater flowing down from the Sierra Nevada and northern mountain ranges. Located at sea level, it consists of large tracts of farmland separated by rivers that are subject to tidal ebbs and flows.
Most of the freshwater washes out to the Pacific Ocean through the San Francisco Bay. Some is pumped — or diverted — by Delta farmers to irrigate their crops, and some is sent south though canals to Central Valley farmers and to 25 million people statewide.
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The drought now in its fourth year has put Delta water under close scrutiny. Twice last year state officials feared salty bay water was backing up into the Delta, threatening water quality. There was not enough fresh water to keep out saltwater.
In June, the state released water stored for farmers and communities from Lake Oroville to combat the saltwater intrusion.
Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources, said “thousands of acre-feet of water a day for a couple of weeks” were released into the Delta. An acre-foot is roughly enough water to supply a household of four for a year.
The fact that the state had to resort to using so much from storage raised questions about where the water was going. That in turn prompted a joint letter by the Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation calling for an investigation into how much water Delta farmers are taking — and whether the amount exceeds their rights to it.
“We don’t know if there were illegal diversions going on at this time,” said Vogel, leaving it up to officials at the State Water Resources Control Board to determine. “Right now, a large information gap exists.”
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Some 450 farmers who hold 1,061 water rights in the Delta and the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds were told to report their water diversions, and Katherine Mrowka, state water board enforcement manager, said a vast majority responded.
State officials are sorting through the information that will help them determine whether any are exceeding their water rights and who should be subject to restrictions.
“In this drought period, water accounting is more important to ensure that the water is being used for its intended purpose,” said U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Louis Moore.
Mussi, a second-generation Delta farmer whose family grows tomatoes, wheat, corn, grapes and almonds on 4,500 acres west of Stockton, said Central Valley farmers have long known that in dry years they would get little or no water from state and federal water projects and would need to rely heavily on groundwater.
“All of a sudden they’re trying to turn their water into a permanent system and ours temporary,” Mussi said. “It’s just not going to work.”
Shawn Coburn farms 1,500 acres along the San Joaquin River in Firebaugh about 100 miles south of the Delta. As a senior rights holder, he figures he will receive 45 percent or less of the water he expected from the federal water project. On another 1,500 acres where he is a junior water rights holder, he will receive no surface water for a second consecutive year.
“I don’t like to pick on other farmers, even if it wasn’t a drought year,” said Coburn. “The only difference is I don’t have a pipe in the Delta I can suck willy-nilly whenever I want.”
42 Comments on "California delta’s water missing amid drought"
Plantagenet on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 3:44 pm
Global Warming is starting to have significant effects. Harassing a few farmers isn’t going to solve the larger problem—California’s climate is changing to something more like the dry desert climate of Baja California.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:08 pm
Actually an El Nino (more of which are associated with more GW) would help California because it is associated with more rain/snow in the winter.
Plantagenet on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:19 pm
@Nony
We’re in an El Nino right now, and the world is at a record level of warmth, but the hoped-for snow and rain never arrived in California. They are at record LOW snowpack. Rivers are going to go dry this summer.
The climate is changing—the old patterns don’t work anymore.
GregT on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:22 pm
Geez Nony,
I’m not quite sure what is worse. Your denial of the ongoing financial and energy crises, or your denial that you have chosen a very bad place to call home.
I’d wish you good luck, but unfortunately, luck is not going to help you. You’re seriously limiting your future options.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:33 pm
Plant and Greg:
San Diego gets its water from the Colorado. Mwahahaha. Doesn’t matter what happens to the Sierra Nevada.
http://www.sdcoastkeeper.org/blog/san-diego-water-supply/item/135-where-your-water-comes-from.html
P.s. A lot of the water problem is because they are diverting more to the delta for the fish. In the past, they would have prioritized human use, in dry years.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:33 pm
Plant and Greg:
San Diego gets its water from the Colorado. Mwahahaha. Doesn’t matter what happens to the Sierra Nevada.
http://www.sdcoastkeeper.org/blog/san-diego-water-supply/item/135-where-your-water-comes-from.html
P.s. A lot of the water problem is because they are diverting more to the delta for the fish. In the past, they would have prioritized human use, in dry years.
Apneaman on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:41 pm
So now your blaming human overshoot on fish Nony?
Apneaman on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:43 pm
Overpopulated by Homo Colossus
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2014/04/20/overpopulated-by-homo-colossus/
GregT on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:43 pm
“RADIOACTIVE MINE WASTE POLLUTING COLORADO RIVER: ”
“Water tests reveal that “uranium mill waste” leaching into the Colorado River has made the water radioactive at “one-third the level considered dangerous,” says the San Diego Union Tribune 1/10. The mine’s owner, Atlas Corporation, has declared bankruptcy, leaving the bulk of the enormous clean up costs to taxpayers. The huge pile of mine waste “sits 750 feet from the river,” and is leaking “an estimated 28,800 gallons of radioactive pollution and toxic chemicals” into the river each day.”
http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/Biology/eh01/waterpollution/radioactivethermal.html
Mwahahaha
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:43 pm
No. The overshoot is the fault of the humans.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:44 pm
“one-third the level considered dangerous”
Hey…that’s below the limit. Drink up. 😉
GregT on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 4:51 pm
“is leaking “an estimated 28,800 gallons of radioactive pollution and toxic chemicals” into the river each day.”
Sounds healthy. No thanks, I’ll pass. 🙂
ghung on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 5:08 pm
Nony: “San Diego gets its water from the Colorado.”
Since Nony is so want to point out other people’s misstatements, I’ll point out his. San Diego only gets about half its water from the Colorado. At least he was half right this time; much better than his average. Of course, with Lake Mead drying up; Mwahahaha!, eh, Nony?
MSN Fanboy on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 5:28 pm
Email address lil planter?
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 5:43 pm
I didn’t know that about Lake Mead. Hope we get some rain soon.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 5:44 pm
Are you stalking her, fanboy?
MSN Fanboy on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 6:55 pm
YES, that’s one for the wank bank Nony…
😉
Ill show you mine if you show me yours…
Makati1 on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 7:48 pm
That’s ok guys. Davy says that Cali only grows ‘elite/fancy’ stuff anyway and the UFSA can do without it if it drys up.
“Prices rose last year for these items on your kitchen table:
• Berries rose in price by about 80 cents per clamshell to $3.88
• Broccoli by 11 cents per pound to $1.89.
• Grapes by 64 cents a pound to $3.06
• Melons by 24 cents a pound to $1.23.
• Packaged salad by 23 cents a bag to $2.91.
• Peppers by 26 cents a pound to $2.39.
“… California is a breadbasket to the nation, growing more than a third of its vegetables and nearly two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. … Overall, the Western drought affects more than 52 million people, the monitor says. As a result, consumers paid a whopping extra 12.1% for beef and veal in 2014, the USDA reports.”
And the beat goes on…
Plantagenet on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 8:14 pm
Nony
If you live in San Diego you might enjoy this article from the NY Times about SD’s new desalinization plant
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/science/drinking-seawater-looks-ever-more-palatable-to-californians.html?_r=0
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 9:02 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyC7WnvLT4
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 9:10 pm
Thanks Plant.
Oceanside had one (I think) in the 1990s.
I do think it’s crazy that you people (imagine it said with a Ross Perot accent) with an environmental slant are touting desal. It is a HUGE drain of electricity to run the pumps that push the water through those RO membranes. [I actually know a surprising amount about this industry and not just theoretically…but that would require me to take my troll hat off and reveal background.]
So…the bizarre thing is that I’m a right of Attila type…and I feel like I need to tell you to be true to your principles. Desal is a HUGE waste of energy. Conservation (dictated by price) is a WAY simpler solution to the water needs.
Oh…and SD, CA has a huge history of corruption and failed expensive civic projects…many of them from Republicans. So watch out for that cash drain.
Davy on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 9:37 pm
Makster said I said “That’s ok guys. Davy says that Cali only grows ‘elite/fancy’ stuff anyway and the UFSA can do without it if it drys up”. Makster, I love how you put things in my mouth. Probably because I was right what I originally said. I generally avoid using defining words like “only”.
California grows many foods that can be grown locally. Maybe not the same foods but similar replacements. We just don’t have to have the California industrial Ag production. This is also true of the food we are importing from places like Asia. Much of these foods are specialty items not staples.
California is not the only breadbasket of the US. It is one of them and the biggest being ranked 1 with an 11% share. Iowa is next in line. This drought is a very good stimulus for locally grown food which can replace much of what California produces. We can easily drop our food consumption by 11%. We eat too much now. This country needs to be on a diet. The US can have less food and it’s a diet. In Asia less food means hunger. Of course not all of California production will be lost. Let’s guess that maybe half will be lost. This will be a big negative for restaurants and fast fooderies. Restaurants are not required to feed this country. We need less of them anyway.
Going into the bumpy descent this will be a plus for the US to force adjustment. This seems to be the only way to change poor attitudes and lifestyles. Asia on the other hand is also drying up but being in overshoot Asia will not be able to replace lost production. These are very big differences between regions. Makster should be worried about his own backyard instead he is crowing about California’s misfortune. Don’t you love morons that gloat over someone else’s suffering. That folks is Makster at his best.
Nony on Sat, 11th Apr 2015 10:06 pm
One thing you can do is to eat more in season. Tomatoes when in the summer. Berries from NJ and DELMARVA and later in the summer Michigan and Maine. Root veggies in the winter. Also, buy from farms, farmers. Not the yuppie overpriced farmer’s markets, but the old colored guy with a pickup truck.
Makati1 on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 4:44 am
Davy, gloating is your problem, not mine. I am only commenting on the events in the Us I as I see them. Am I incorrect in my quote of your previous comment?
If you think this is not going to be a major downer for all of America, you are drinking too much of that Missouri moonshine. It could precipitate the financial collapse that is fast approaching by high prices and shortages.
Locally grown food will not begin to feed the millions. And not one in 100,000 knows how to grow weeds, let alone edible food. They won’t learn or even try. They will just complain and demand more from the government.
Most personal land in the Us is too poor and polluted to grow anything except with heavy doses of chemical fertilizers. You know that even gardens take a lot of work and money to get started. Money most do not have. Not to mention regulations against it.
Less than 5% of the Us population are on farms and most of them are over 55. Whereas. over 55% of Chinese are farmers and work the land. Even the Philippines are 40% farmers and most are under 40. I wonder who is best at self-sufficiency in food?
Davy on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 7:09 am
I always know when I nailed it with the Makster. That is because he has to respond. Normally he wants to show his aloofness by not responding to my calling him out on his agendist propaganda, distortions, and selective truth rigging. The Makster standard response is putting things in my mouth I did not say by embellishing and selective linking. That is a typical propagandist technic.
Mak connect the dots by science and mathematics. Asia is the region clearly in overshoot territory. First and foremost the population is 4BIL in a space smaller than Russia. Mega cities, vast industrialization, the worst global environmental damage, and soil and water destroyed in development or ruined by industrial pollution.
Makster clearly embellished the truth with his 55% figure on Chinese farmers. Makster the figure is around 20% with 40% of the population rural. Yet by American standards 600,000,000MIL people is not rural. That is overpopulation when your rural is double the size of the US population and the rest is in overcrowded urban mega cities. Clearly China with here population and water stress is in serious dire straits going forward especially if here economy hard lands like it is forecasted to do.
US land has been stressed by production AG just like the rest of the world but there is so much more per population to adjust that situation. When push comes to shove this localization of food can start to happen in the US. This will not be popular or easy but it can be done. The California drought and PO are going to force this change. There is no guarantee it can happen fully but I am confident significant progress will be made. Not enough to shelter the US from food insecurity but better than famine that awaits Asia.
California epitomizes industrial AG buy its use of oil and water to deliver food across the US. This will have to end and this drought is a blessing in disguise forcing that change. California will need the water it has to feed itself which can be done if changes are made. Like I said before the US needs a diet and a forced food lifestyle changes. Gone will be processed, fast food, and vast grocery store options. In will be a narrow range of staples along with locally grown food. Back will be handcrafted specialty foods. Again, this will not be enough but it is enough to mitigate and adjust to if the collapse conditions are reasonable. Asia is facing famine. The numbers and the science are clearly behind an Asian famine forecast.
Makster again highlights the Philippines a country with 100MIL in the space of Arizona in a land on the bottom of the environmental health list and AGW negatives list. Makster connect the dots with your P’s and what will happen when PO and AGW strike hard. You have way too many people for what you can support. Sorry you are eating crow today.
Nony on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 9:48 am
Mak: we will not run out of food. Be real. I go to the supermarket and it is chock full of fresh food. Who cares if I have to pay a few pennies extra cause the lettuce price goes up a little. America has huge expanses of farmable land in the East that are not farmed just because Cali is cheaper.
Nony on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 9:49 am
No doom. NO! No doom for you. Climb out of the bunker. People think you are nutters for being doomer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWC6W1ctkMY
Davy on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 10:24 am
NOo, better a nutter than a dumb man walking. If you cannot use math and science to connect the dots you are dumb.
Dredd on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 4:49 pm
As goes Caly so goes Amurky (Choose Your Trances Carefully – 5).
Makati1 on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 8:18 pm
Dredd, the deniers will just dry up and blow away with the Cali dust. No problem.
Pull those 47,000,000 food stamp cards and end the corporate and sheeple welfare and see what kind of America is left. A Zombie Land that would make the 3rd world look good.
Makati1 on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 8:19 pm
Dream on Davy…
drwater on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 11:25 am
“Mussi, a second-generation Delta farmer whose family grows tomatoes, wheat, corn, grapes and almonds on 4,500 acres west of Stockton, said Central Valley farmers have long known that in dry years they would get little or no water from state and federal water projects and would need to rely heavily on groundwater.
“All of a sudden they’re trying to turn their water into a permanent system and ours temporary,” Mussi said. “It’s just not going to work.”
Bingo!!!
There is a system of water rights in California. The farmers with the worst water rights were planting trees and then crying for political favors when they didn’t have enough water for trees. Everybody knew they should have stuck to row crops that they could fallow in a drought.
Even if the Delta farmers are not the most efficient, whatever the Delta farmers waste just reenters the water system anyway through seepage.
Regarding El Nino, Nony is right. If we have a strong El Nino, California could get wet fast next winter – maybe even too fast. Mild El Ninos on average don’t do much.
In general, climate change is going to make the California water scene much more difficult.
Davy on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 11:48 am
I agree Dr. Climate instability appears to mean something different from the past historic droughts. The new normal could be extremes. If Californians would adjust to a drought climate with communities and agricultural they may be able to adapt. That means a narrow range of crops and and end to typical water usage of the past.
Maybe this drought will force change. It is going to force change with the rest of the country. We will not have the food luxury we once had. Maybe this will stimulate local seasonal production places like California destroyed.
Apneaman on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 1:03 pm
El Nino will provide some amount of recharge, but it will do nothing for the very important snow pack. It will be a reprieve-not a drought ending event. The big el nino of 1998 cost the US $25 billion in damages. More people in harms way since 1998. Giving people false hope is a cruel cut. El Nino to the rescue sounds like more bullshit to avoid making inevitable hard choices. It’s just a matter of time before the exodus starts – this pattern of overpopulation leading to desertification, die back and exodus goes back to the first civilization – Sumer. It has been repeated more times than the history books can record and all our clever manipulations and technology has only made it grander this time.
Apneaman on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 1:16 pm
Although our friend Nony-marm is putting on a bit of an act there are so many true believers and even more apathy that we will never see any meaningful changes until after collapse, which will be too little too late as far as having a livable planet. It has as much to do with human nature/brain wiring as anything.
The Unpersuadables
“Storr found that discussing evolution with religious fundamentalists was:
…like being a tourist in another Universe… Simple facts and basic logic just don’t work the way I had assumed… facts proved entirely ineffective, and they were ineffective to a spectacular and baffling extent.
The answers they gave to his reasonable questions were often hilarious. If T. rex was a vegetarian, why did he have such big teeth? To eat watermelons.”
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-unpersuadables/
Humans’ love for simple stories and status quo make opinions intractable in face of fact.
“Religions and ideologies play into the hero plot since they match up well with the individual’s moral hunches and provide external justification. They validate emotional instincts, provide purpose and a common enemy.”
“Cognitive psychologist Eryn Newman, who works out of the University of California–Irvine, recently uncovered an unsettling precondition for truthiness: The less effort it takes to process a factual claim, the more accurate it seems. ”
http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/09/humans-love-for-simple-stories-and-status-quo-make-opinions-intractable-in-face-of-fact/
Davy on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 1:29 pm
Ape Man, your above comment is part of the reason for my doom. Not only are these people the problem a much larger segment of the population is not capable of critical thinking for multiple reasons. This leaves after all is said and done a small amount of critical thinkers capable of good decisions. Many of the remaining are not other oriented but seek self advancement. This leaves Nature to make the decisions by default.
Northwest Resident on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 1:39 pm
Davy — Maybe humanity stands at the brink of a major evolutionary advancement. The only ones who are likely to make it through the up and coming proverbial bottleneck are those that are above average intelligence and able to clearly discern complex fact from simple illusion, in addition to their relatively good health, strength, endurance and ability to adapt to rapid and stressful changes. The offspring of a condensed group of people as described above are likely to be “super human” — especially when compared to the “average” human that the world currently has wayyyy too many of. Just trying to look at the “bright side”.
Apneaman on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 1:48 pm
Here is another one of those little evolutionary quirks that is now an existential detriment to mankind. Hell Davy, sometimes I catch myself not believing (feeling) it can happen. Then I get in a fight with the rational part of my brain that has all those science facts tucked away; like how earth has had 14 extinction events already (5 mass) and they all involved massive releases of C02 and other gases. Yabut.
Your brain won’t allow you to believe the apocalypse could actually happen
http://io9.com/5848857/your-brain-wont-allow-you-to-believe-the-apocalypse-could-actually-happen
Apneaman on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 2:21 pm
Northwest, too much intelligence and not enough empathy and sapience is the problem IMO. Just look at how intelligent the people who thought up nuclear weapons were. Most of the people currently working on DARPA projects have above average intelligence. Edward Bernays and his modern equivalents are really intelligent too. The list of highly intelligent people taking us to Hell is long. Too smart for our own good?
This lecture explores the origins, development and influence of commonly held, but often factually suspect, American beliefs [I would add that some of it applies to the rest of the West as well.]
Myths of The American Mind: Smartness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjR3h0RqVG0
Davy on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 2:46 pm
NR/Ape Man could that evolutionary advancement just be going back to our normal human nature pre-civilization. Maybe our advancement will be a return to semi-nomadic hunter gathers in a natural harmony with a natural ecosystem.
Northwest Resident on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 3:05 pm
Apnea/Davy — I think there are super smart people, and then there are super intelligent people. Maybe that actual distinction doesn’t exist in the human race, but I believe it does. Super smart people can and often are socio/psychopaths hell bent on domination and power, to hell with everybody else. Whereas super intelligent people have the same or greater “smartness” that the super smart psychos and sociopaths have, but they are possessed of greater wisdom, concern for the greater good and spiritual inclinations to revere nature and all of God’s creation. You can be super smart and still deny global warming, still be a warmonger, still be an A-Hole, still be a denier of whatever reality does not mesh with your preconceived notions. But a super intelligent person, I like to think, is many cuts above a super-smart person.
Davy — That in my opinion would be best case scenario. And we probably don’t have much choice — that’s where we’re headed anyway, like it or not. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but soon enough — very soon — relatively speaking.
Apneaman on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 3:21 pm
If we could only inter-breed with Vulcan’s we might be OK.
Here’s the Wizard telling Chris Martenson his version of how we is fucked. I loves me some wizards.
John Michael Greer: The God Of Technological Progress May Well Be Dead
But society is unwilling to consider that
by Adam Taggart
Sunday, April 12, 2015, 2:49 PM
http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/92330/john-michael-greer-god-technological-progress-may-well-dead