Editorial: Brown’s lame response to drought
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the March 23, 2015, San Jose Mercury News.
California is in a drought of historic proportions with no end in sight. Scientists and political leaders, including Gov. Jerry Brown, agree. The governor called an official state of emergency way back in January 2014 — but you wouldn’t know it from his actions since.
Lame doesn’t begin to describe Brown’s failure to show leadership on this threat to the state’s long-range future that’s easily as dire as the massive budget deficit he inherited in 2011.
For example: A governor who was serious about conservation would be offering tens of millions of dollars in incentives to urban water users to replace water-wasting toilets, shower heads, dishwashers and washing machines with state-of-the-art, low-flow products.
Instead, Brown’s Water Resources Control Board is requiring restaurants to fill customers’ water glasses only if they ask and telling hotels to offer guests only one towel during their stay unless they request a fresh one. Oh, the pain of sacrifice.
I was wondering if Brown knew something, or had a magical stash, we did not know about. Ignore it and it will go away?
Time for major measures and implementation of strict rationing folks.
Anybody else remember Brown’s response to the Mediterranean Fruitfly debacle back in the late 1970s and early 1980s during his first stint as California Governor? Beginning in the spring of 1979 reports of the Fruitfly infestation were being published in California’s newspapers along with the prediction that this Fruitfly would destroy California’s agriculture industry if it was not eradicated, and Brown took zero action in 1979 or in 1980. In 1981 which was the third year into the infestation he authorized ground spraying but by that time it was too late and the Medfly had taken hold and its reproduction out-paced the ground spraying eradication effort. California’s agriculture industry was being decimated so shortly thereafter during 1981 Brown authorized airborne spraying of Malathion by California National Guard helicopters along with the afterthought suggestion to residents that they may want to remain indoors and keep their windows closed while the spraying was taking place. It was Brown’s inaction in the first two years of that circumstance that led to the need for overhead spraying of poison on the citizens of California so that the State’s agriculture industry could be saved.
The only reason Brown was able to make any headway with California’s most recent budget crisis in his latest stint as Governor was because he robbed California’s local governments (cities, towns, and counties) of their revenues which by State law the Governor can do, and also because the recession began to ease.
This man is not any kind of genius and his method of addressing the drought is not one bit surprising and will be totally ineffective.
Another article that is so common now a days in the press. No differentiation of the huge difference in weather, ect… between around north of Sacramento and approximately south of Sacramento. At least they mentioned 80% of water going to agricultural uses and the very inefficient use of water in that industry. So, is Brown / California being stymied by one of the most powerful agricultural interest on the planet?
Mal and the Thyones!!!! Party on Garth.
Perry, we are north of Sacramento, so I guess we aren’t in a drought here, even though we never had more than 4 inches of snow on the ground? If you don’t like water going to agriculture, you should stop eating. Taking water away from the growers will only make matters worse.
As far as I can see, Brown’s response to just about everything has been lame, and the drought is no exception. It looks like all the liberals who are so opposed to reservoirs are finally going to get what they ask for…
Greengrass,
About 4 years ago, Heavenly and Squaw both stated they had the most snow ever recorded in the history of their resorts. According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune weather stats section, 2014 saw about 2/3s of normal precipitation for the city of South Lake Tahoe . Also notice I stated approximately north and south. Reservoirs about north of Sac are in much better shape overall than reservoirs around south of Sacramento, that is a fact that very few press alarmist seem willing to comment on.
Where did I state I don’t want water going to agriculture? I figure if I can cut my water use by around half or more, maybe they can too.
Greengrass, you generalize regarding reservoirs. Why should more reservoirs be built when the ones already built stand empty? How is having more reservoirs going to help? You want to pay for more tax funded storage? Dosent that go against the foxnoise narrative you spew? Just saying…
@nature: Well, more reservoirs aren’t going to help right now, because there’s no water to fill them. The time to build the reservoirs was 10 years ago. Then, the extra storage capacity could be helping us in the current drought.
Though it may be too late to save us from this drought, but we still ought to build more reservoirs and start saving that water for future droughts.
And I would gladly pay taxes for something useful like a reservoir. I’m not opposed to paying taxes, because, lets face it: It takes a hell of a lot of money to run a country. What I hate paying for is all these stupid government pet-projects, leeching bums, and other wastes of money. Don’t get conservatives wrong here, we’ll pay our taxes like loyal Americans, as long as our money is being used for something worthwhile. The government is here for us, we’re not here for the government. And please don’t accuse me of spewing a fox noise narrative, because I don’t watch that channel anyway.
@Perry R Obray: Here is the official March 24, 2015 drought map showing nearly all of Northern California in at least an extreme drought: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA
Actually, Central California is getting the worst of the drought, but still, 60% of the state is in an exceptional drought.
You obviously want agriculture to use less water, because you accuse that industry of wasting water, and in your last comment, you said that it should be able to cut by 50%. There’s no way. That’s barely enough water to keep the trees alive, and there’s no chance they can grow a crop on that much water. Check out this article, and I think you’ll see what might happen if we restrict growers’s water: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2013/07/california_grows_all_of_our_fruits_and_vegetables_what_would_we_eat_without.html
greengrass
Greengrass,
My point is, 80% of our water goes to agriculture. Sources have claimed agriculture doesn’t do its part across the board to save water. If only around 15% of agriculture use of water is saved, this is more saved water than if every household stopped using water altogether. I never stated agriculture can slash water use by 50%.
Also, your drought link above doesn’t mention reservoir levels. Reservoirs in the northern part of the state are in much better shape than the southern part.
My big gripe, is all these areas in California that are experiencing a very serious drought situation, seemingly want to impose draconian measures on areas not effected as seriously, causing seriously pissed off people. In addition to sources claiming agriculture is not doing its part.