[env-trinity] Governor to discuss water "conservation" today as Big Ag, Big Oil get off the hook

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/16/1378201/-Governor-to-discuss-water-conservation-today-as-Big-Ag-Big-Oil-get-off-the-hook

Governor to discuss water "conservation" today as Big Ag, Big Oil get  
off the hook

by Dan Bacher

After convening agribusiness, urban water agency and corporate  
"environmental" NGO leaders to discuss the drought last week, Governor  
Edmund G. Brown Jr. will hold another closed door meeting in  
Sacramento today.

A media advisory from the Governor's Office claims that Brown will  
"gather officials" from the landscape, golf, home and garden, spa and  
pool, cemetery and mortuary, building and manufacturing, retail,  
restaurant and hospitality industries in Sacramento today to discuss  
the business community’s efforts to conserve water.

“The key challenge here – aside from getting the water – is to be able  
to collaborate together,” said Governor Brown at last week’s meeting.  
“We’re going to rise to the occasion as Californians first and as  
members of different groups second.”

As was the case in last week's meeting, only the final few minutes of  
the meeting, including time for questions, will be open to coverage by  
"credentialed media" at approx. 3:00 p.m. The location will be the  
California State Capitol, Governor's Office, Sacramento, CA 95814

According to the advisory:

"Earlier this month, Governor Brown announced the first ever 25  
percent statewide mandatory water reductions and a series of actions  
to help save water, increase enforcement to prevent wasteful water  
use, streamline the state’s drought response and invest in new  
technologies that will make California more drought resilient. This  
order included measures to help: replace lawns with drought tolerant  
landscaping and old appliances with more water and energy efficient  
models; cut water use at campuses, golf courses, cemeteries and other  
large landscapes; prevent potable water irrigation at new developments  
unless water-efficient drip systems are used; and stop watering of  
ornamental grass on public street medians.

Within days of the Governor’s order, the State Water Resources Control  
Board released its framework to achieve the mandatory water reductions  
and the California Energy Commission approved new water appliance  
standards to save billions of gallons of water per year. Yesterday,  
the California Department of Water Resources announced that due to the  
severe drought it will install an emergency, temporary rock barrier  
across a Sacramento San Joaquin Delta channel to help prevent the  
saltwater contamination of water that 25 million Californians depend on.

These measures build on unprecedented action by the State Water  
Resources Control Board over the past year to prohibit other wasteful  
water use and encourage Californians to conserve, including strict  
limits on outdoor irrigation (two days a week in much of California)  
and bans on hosing down outdoor surfaces, decorative water fountains  
that don't recirculate water and car washing without an automatic shut- 
off nozzle. Bars and restaurants are also now required to only serve  
water upon request and hotels must ask guests staying multiple nights  
whether linens and towels need to be washed.

Governor Brown proclaimed a drought state of emergency in January 2014  
and for more than two years, the state’s experts have been managing  
water resources to deal with the effects of the drought, which include  
severely curtailed water supplies to agricultural producers,  
farmworker job losses due to fallowed fields, drinking water  
vulnerability in communities across California, heightened fire danger  
and threats to endangered and threatened fish and wildlife.

To learn about all the actions the state has taken to manage our water  
system and cope with the impacts of the drought, visit Drought.CA.Gov.  
Every Californian should take steps to conserve water. Find out how at  
SaveOurWater.com."

Not mentioned in the Governor's media advisory was the fact that  
agribusiness uses 80 percent of California water while oil companies  
and Nestle Waters and other water bottling companies continue to drain  
and pollute California aquifers during a record drought.

The mainstream media, state officials and corporate “environmental”  
groups have for years tried to portray California as the “green”  
leader of the nation. In reality, California suffers from some of the  
greatest environmental degradation of any state in the nation, since  
corporate agribusiness, the oil industry and other big money interests  
control the majority of the state’s politicians and exert inordinate  
influence over the state’s environmental policies.

At an Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) event at the  
Crest Theatre in Sacramento last week, Natural Resources Secretary  
John Laird claimed that “everybody is a soldier in the fight” to  
address the drought.

Yes, everybody except those planting almonds in the drought!

According to the “On the Public Record” blog, almond acreage in  
California has expanded by 70,000 acres, a total of 280,000 acre feet  
per year of new water demand:

“I have marked the almond acreage at the beginning and end of the  
2006-2009 drought (700,000 acres at the beginning, 810,000 acres at  
the end). At the beginning of our current drought, almond acreage was  
870,000 acres. In 2013, after two years of drought, it was up to  
940,000 acres. It looks like the 2014 California Almond Acreage Report  
comes out at the end of April (here’s 2013). I will be excited to see  
a new total acreage.

Let’s make this all explicit. Since this drought began, almonds have  
expanded by 70,000 acres. That’s 280,000 acft/year of new water demand  
for a snack that will be exported. That water will come from  
groundwater or from other farmers. At the same time, the California  
EPA is literally telling urban users to take five minute cold showers.  
If there is a lot of new acreage in 2014 and 2015, it is going to be  
difficult for the Brown administration to stay friends with them.”

It’s clear that the severity of this drought calls for much more than  
just individual action like cutting back on your showers or flushing  
your toilet less. California water restrictions must include corporate  
agribusiness, Big Oil and Nestle and other bottling companies during  
the drought. To take action, go to: http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/04/california-water-restrictions-must-include-nestle-big-ag-and-big-oil/

  
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