Politics Cloud Water Debate
Which way would you guess things are going?
Here’s a clue: Last week a clutch of Republican members of Congress from California agricultural counties arranged (with the connivance of House Speaker John Boehner) to pass a bill overriding mandates to keep water flowing in the state’s rivers in favor of increasing supplies to farmers. They sounded the tired old cry about “putting families over fish,” as though there aren’t families in California dependent on healthy fisheries, too, and as though the water transfer in question would relieve what is shaping up as a record drought year.
The measure is opposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, state water officials and Democrats in both houses of Congress. It’s nothing but a sop to credulous farm voters in the districts of Reps. David Valadao, Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes, its sponsors. It doesn’t create a single drop of water, despite ridiculous claims that it will “solve California’s water crisis” (Nunes), and abrogates jealously guarded states’ rights over water allocations to boot.
Yet while this posturing was going on in Washington, the drought in California was growing worse and solutions more elusive. Even if it’s relieved by the wet spell we’ve seen in recent days continuing through the rest of the wet season, it’s a harbinger of more extremes to come, thanks to climate change.
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The California Aqueduct that brings water to Los Angeles from up north