<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "> <div><div><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/16/1378201/-Governor-to-discuss-water-conservation-today-as-Big-Ag-Big-Oil-get-off-the-hook">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/16/1378201/-Governor-to-discuss-water-conservation-today-as-Big-Ag-Big-Oil-get-off-the-hook</a> </div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6">Governor to discuss water "conservation" today as Big Ag, Big Oil get off the hook </font></div><div><br></div><div>by Dan Bacher</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><i> </i></div><div><i>“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.” </i></div><div> </div><div>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</div><div><br></div><div>According to the advisory:</div><div> </div><div><i>"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. </i></div><div><i> </i></div><div><i>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.</i></div><div><i> </i></div><div><i>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.</i></div><div><i> </i></div><div><i>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.</i></div><div><i> </i></div><div><i>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." </i></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Yes, everybody except those planting almonds in the drought!</div><div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><br></div><div><i>“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. </i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>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.” </i></div><div><br></div><div>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: <a href="http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/04/california-water-restrictions-must-include-nestle-big-ag-and-big-oil/">http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/04/california-water-restrictions-must-include-nestle-big-ag-and-big-oil/</a></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></body></html>