[The following, written by Synthesis weekly columnist Julia Murphy, appeared in the Synthesis Weekly on Monday, July 7th, 2008. Julia can be reached at ninjatreehugger@gmail.com

Water and Power

Driving from Chico to Oroville, the air seemed to get steadily worse, or that might just have been the ability to see (or in this case, to not see) a further horizon, driving on 149 and 70. As I drove, I was excited to have the chance to witness the Butte County Water Commission and BC Department of Water Resource Conservation air their doins in the County Seat.
Oroville: spiritual home of MC Oroville — I always get excited going there.

I was late, so I missed the discussions on the General Plan; some talk of including a Water Element in the Plan came around again near the end of the meeting. More on that later. Maybe.
Paul Gosselin, director of BCWRC, was talking about drought preparedness as I rolled in. This is a hot, dry potato. At the time of this writing, it is the first day of fire season proper. Paraphrasing Gosselin’s “The Next Drought Season Is Here,” from the BCWRC’s newsletter “Water Solutions,” our governor declared a drought on June 4th of this year. What does this mean? At this point it means promoting conservation, moving water to critical areas, increasing fire protection and assessing impacts to communities and agriculture.
What, exactly, does “promoting conservation” mean? Does it mean PSAs telling you not to run the faucet when you brush your teeth? Or does it mean water rationing? And, by the by, I don’t see water rationing as a draconian measure of totalitarian government run amok. On the contrary, I think rationing might, in fact, be a crash course in Water Appreciation 101. As I cinch my tinfoil hat down tighter, I’d go so far as to say that our kids (if not us) will all have to adjust to water rationing someday.

More after the jump.

Here’s the meat in that Commission meeting sandwich: The Tuscan Aquifer is being eyed as the lush, sexy virgin to the rapacious Hydro-Powers that be — the statewide agencies that come on like Water & Power in Tank Girl. Agencies that govern water in the “baller” category include Department of Water Resources (DWR), who this year decided to charge Butte County, a contractor under the State Water Project (that means we usually have it to contract out) for our water allotment that we don’t use. The county is looking at being charged around $800,000 for our water allotment that we don’t use. And I thought I was getting rooked paying for car insurance!!
So when Palmdale wants to buy our surface water to the tune of $1.94 million…problem solved. Plus we have a surplus of money to throw at “Table A” (that’s Tuscan Table A) “related activities.” That’s ostensibly what the money from the sale of water to Palmdale, 60 miles outside of LA, would fund. Palmdale isn’t buying the Aquifer, but the Aquifer is getting thrown into the pot when the surface water’s gone. Dig?
Hey, here’s a thought: Use funds from the water transfer to conclusively map the Tuscan! That way, we can scientifically prove that we’re truly fucked. Bye-bye, farmers! Nice to know ya. It was a good run, huh? But those Palmdale lawns are just too unique-snowflake-special to ignore.
Okay, I’m busted. I have grass in my lawn. I also have some potatoes, but shouldn’t I (we) be putting water on something more ultimately useful than grass? (Gruuuuuub, gra grub grub.) And, holy hell, if it’s grass, how ‘bout native (drought-tolerant) grass? Fun factoid: Native grasses have roots that can go down 10-15 feet. They’re from here! They’re adapted!
Palmdale. Yep. The water’s slated to go; the contracts are signed. There’s a Notice of Determination, which means that under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) there was a “Negative Declaration.” That means that there was no perceived environmental impact (or a “mitigated negative declaration,” which means there would have been some impacts, but they could be fixed by doing extra green-goodness stuff in the project). No impact. Okay, I’m hoping…but hope is just the panacea of the powerless. So I lied. I’m not hoping; I’m doubting.
Palmdale’s the Lead Agency (point man), Butte County is a Responsible Agency, and so is DWR. So if you want to throw down on a fool, now you know.
That’s really disturbing. But here’s another interesting thought: In a State of Emergency (which might logically follow a drought), water appropriations can be made that supercede any and all agreements and contracts. Are we the wettest (freshwater) neighborhood in this increasingly withered state? Yes, we are. Are you upset about this fuckmucklery?
Well, do you like water?
I do.
For a much higher grade of info on these matters, contact Jim Brobeck at pine@shocking.com . He was reppin’ our district like a mad monk, putting irritating grains of truth into the proceedings last week like you-don’t-even-know. This man is a fulcrum. He’s on my team. GO TEAM!!
When you turn on your faucet, I hope you realize that a miracle happens. And you better start making other arrangements, ‘cause it ain’t always gonna be like that.

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Tags: aquifer | Butte County | county water | crash course | critical areas | day of fire | drought preparedness | drought season | fire season | gosselin | moving water | resource conservation | tinfoil hat | totalitarian government | water and power | water commission | water element | water rationing | water resource | water solutions

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